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COPYRIGHT DEPOSH^ 



The Court Series of French Memoirs 



RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OFFICER 
OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 




THE EMPEROR 
In the Uniform of a Grenadier. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF 

AN OFFICER OF 
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 



BY 

Captain Elzear Blaze 



Translated from the French by 

E. Jules Meras 



Tlew Korft 
STURGIS & WALTON 

COMPANY 

1911 






Copyright 191 1 
By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1911 



41. 'SO 



INTRODUCTION 

Elzear Jean Louis Joseph Blaze, soldier and 
writer, was born at Cavaillon, France, in 1788 and 
died In Paris in 1848. He was a pupil of the 
Fontainebleau Military School and as a member of 
the Grande Armee took part In the Campaigns of 
Prussia, 1807; Austria, 1809; Spain, 181 1; Russia, 
1812; Saxony, 18 13; and In the investment of 
Hamburg, 18 14. He continued in the army until 
the Restauratlon at which time he retired with the 
rank of captain. As a writer he has left us a half 
dozen or more works on hunting, and his Vie Mil- 
itaire sous I'Empire, ou Mceurs de Garnison, de 
Bivouac et de Caserne, which book Is here pre- 
sented under the title of Recollections of an Officer 
of Napoleon's Army. 

Although the Empire of the great Napoleon Is 
the epoch about which the greatest number of 
memoirs have been written, yet it is not necessarily 
the best known. The Memoirs of the Marshals 



INTRODUCTION 

of the Empire were those first published, then 
came those of the generals, and lastly those of the 
subaltern officers. 

In a book full of spirit and of a kind of South- 
ern humour, from which part of France he came, 
Captain Blaze gives us the plain, straightforward 
story of the experiences in the field of one of Na- 
poleon's soldiers. Having served in the army 
from 1806 to the Restauration, Blaze is in a posi- 
tion to give us particularly valuable information. 
From Friedland to Wagram, having won the rank 
of captain, he remained, out of liking for military 
life, in direct contact with the troopers. A wide- 
awake and judicious observer. Blaze describes the 
soldier without flattery. His is a most precious 
contribution to the study of the soldier of the Em- 
pire whose disappointments and hopes he shared. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Emperor in the Uniform of a Grenadier . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Alexander First, Emperor of Russia 46 

The Battle of Eylau 66 

The Battle of Austerlitz 118 

Murat 132 

Napoleon at Tilsit 158 

"Vive L'Empereur" 214 

Frederick William Third, King of Prussia 228 



THE FONTAINEBLEAU MILITARY 
SCHOOL 



RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OFFICER OF 
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

CHAPTER I 

THE FONTAINEBLEAU MILITARY SCHOOL 

During the Empire, one could enter the service 
in three different ways: one could enlist, it was 
the simplest and least expensive way; one could 
enroll in the velites,^ or else enter the Fontaine- 
bleau Military School as a pupil. 

The Fontainebleau Military School opened its 
doors for 1,200 francs a year, but the crowd of 
young men blocked them ; everyone could not enter. 
Those who had not the time to await their turn 
of admission entered the velites; it was a harder 
way, one won the epaulet with greater difficulty, 
but he wore a uniform sooner; at eighteen that 
meant something. 

One must have been a soldier at that time to 
understand what magic there was in a uniform. 

3 



4 AN OFFICER OF 

What a vision of a glorious future there was irt 
every young head wearing a plume for the first 
time I Every French soldier carried his baton of 
marshal of France in his cartridge-box ; it was only 
a question of getting it out. We saw nothing dif- 
ficult in that ; to-day I even think that at that time 
we would not have limited to that our ambitious 
dreams. 

One thing worried us. " The devil I " we said, 
" suppose Napoleon should stop when in so fine 
a way. If he should conceive the unhappy idea 
of making peace, farewell to all our hopes." 
Fortunately our fears were not realised, for he cut 
out more work for us than we were able to per- 
form. 

Two weeks after my arrival, I had worked so 
well that I was considered worthy of mounting 
guard for the first time. Once installed at the 
post, the old soldiers who happened to be with me 
made the enumeration of all the young velites who, 
In a position equal to mine, had paid for their 
welcome by treating their comrades at a neigh- 
bouring inn. Such a one had done things in fine 
style; another had behaved like a pekin, he had 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 5 

hardly given enough to drink ; one had entertained 
lavishly: fresh pork-chops, sealed wine, coffee, 
liqueurs. ... I then decided that I should 
do as the last mentioned. 

That day I wrote my name on the walls, behind 
the sentry-box, with my bayonet; chance having 
lately led me to the gate of the Champ-de-Mars, 
I tried to see If I could still read it; after having 
sought for a long time, I finally found it all cov- 
ered with moss. The guard-house luncheon came 
back to my mind with all its joyous circumstances. 
Is there left another guest beside me, said I, 
thinking of all the events that had followed one 
another In the interval of thirty years. If some 
old soldier had shown his face burned by the sun 
of the Pyramids, I should have embraced him 
heartily ; oh ! the good dinner we should have had 
together ! 

Many velites found the soldier's life tedious: 
to become officers sooner, they went to the Fon- 
tainebleau Military School; I was among the lat- 
ter. My turn came to go to Fontainebleau. 
. . . I departed. I was then obliged to re- 
commence my education: in the velites we had 



6 AN OFFICER OF 

mounted drills, there we drilled on foot; from the 
carbine I had to change to the musket. That was 
a small matter. 

In the imperial guards the hair was worn short 
in front, and the queue in the back; at the military 
school we wore the forelock without queue; so that 
for six months, cut in front or cut in the back, I 
was always cut; my head remained bald and much 
resembled that of a choir boy. 

General Bellavenne was governor of the Fon- 
talnbleau Military School. All those who have 
known him can say that the place seemed to have 
been created for him. We considered him strict, 
but we were wrong; when one has six hundred 
eighteen-year-old heads to lead, it is difficult to 
do so without being strict. His alter ego, the 
brave Kuhmann, seconded him capitally. This 
epithet of brave had been given him by a man who 
was a judge, by Napoleon himself. He was a 
good, excellent Alsatian, who mangled the French 
language, a stickler on discipline, and thinking only 
of drills. I can still see him on the threshold of 
his door, at the moment when the battalion took 
their arms, making himself taller by three Inches, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 7 

and shouting: " Heads erect, heads erect; immo- 
bility in the most beautiful part of the drill! " 

At five In the morning, the drum awoke us. 
The courses in history, geography, mathematics, 
drawing and fortifications kept us busy from hour 
to hour; change of work was our relaxation and, 
to vary our pleasures, four hours of drill, cleverly 
arranged, divided our day in a most agreeable 
manner; so that on going to bed, we had our heads 
full of the heroes of Greece and Rome, of rivers 
and mountains, of angles and tangents, of trenches 
and bastions. All these things were a bit mixed 
In our minds, the drill alone was positive; our 
shoulders, our knees, and our hands prevented us 
from mixing it with the rest. 

Novels were prohibited at the military school: 
one of our ofiicers held them in horror. When 
he walked through the study-rooms, he confiscated 
everything that looked to him like a novel. He 
knew the titles of the books we were supposed to 
have, the remainder was reputed novels, forbidden, 
and confiscated for good. 

The pupils were expected to know Latin; it 
was not taught at the school; consequently Virgil 



8 AN OFFICER OF 

was not on our officer's list; one evening, in the 
study room, I was reading the " ^Eneid " ; he 
stepped behind me, and seized my book as a vulture 
would carry away a nightingale. 

" Another novel! " he exclaimed with a trium- 
phant air. 

" You are mistaken, it Is Virgil." 

" What does that Virgil talk about? " 

" Of the siege of Troy, of wars, of battles 

" Troy ! Troy ! It is fabulous ; another novel, 
didn't I say so! Read VEcole de Peloton (the 
platoon school) ; that's the best book to form the 
youth. If you need diversion. Imitate your neigh- 
bour. He is acquiring knowledge, he Is a young 
man who employs his time usefully; If he stops 
the reading, and mighty Interesting reading It Is, 
of the roster of 1791, it Is to take up books of 
philosophy ; he does not waste his time, as you do, 
in reading twaddle." And my neighbour was 
reading Therese Philosophe, a book anything but 
philosophical. 

" See how sharp all those pupils are ! To baffle 
me, they have novels printed In ciphers." This 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 9 

is what our good officer used to say as he confis- 
cated the Tables of Logarithms. 

Our mess at the school was the same as that of 
the soldiers at the barracks : army-bread, and bean 
alternating with lentil soup ; it was the necessary 
without extra, as you see. The bringing in of all 
sorts of dainties was prohibited. Young people 
are greedy, and our minds were always strained 
in inventing new ways of smuggling. The door 
keeper, a most strict custom's man, seized every- 
thing that had the least resemblance to dainties; 
they were not taken with the idea of sending them 
back, but were retained by him, and the Lord 
knows how watchful he was ! 

Once a week we went into the forest of Fon- 
tainebleau, either to draw plans, or for the cannon 
manoeuvres. The artillery officers or professors 
of mathematics with whom we were on those days, 
much more indulgent than the officers detailed to 
keep order in the school, permitted us to patronise 
a swarm of pastry-cooks and miscellaneous food 
venders who surrounded us with baskets filled with 
good things, the prices of which soared as the 
supply decreased. 



10 AN OFFICER OF 

Just as those who go outside of the barriers to 
get tipsy, we were unable to bring in anything 
fraudulently except in our stomachs. On return- 
ing we were always examined by piercing eyes, 
searched by clever hands, and the smugglers were 
punished. Nevertheless it was disagreeable, after 
having had poultry, pates and ham ad libitum dur- 
ing one day, to go back the next day to a dish of 
plain lentils. The difference was enormous, much 
too decided; to allow of its disappearing by grad- 
ual and insensible changes, and to prolong our 
gastronomic enjoyments, I invented the pates de 
giherne. This sublimity drew to me from my 
comrades the most flattering compliments and 
placed my name among those of the benefactors 
of the school. 

You may or may not know how a giherne (car- 
tridge-box) is constructed: it is a leather box con- 
taining a piece of wood pierced with holes to 
receive the cartridges. On leaving the school we 
had our guns and our cartridge-boxes, but they 
were empty. One day when, in the forest of 
Fontainebleau, I was negotiating with all proper 
seriousness a certain affair with a pastry boy, a 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY ii 

luminous idea struck me: the most ordinary men 
have at times flashes of genius. I took out the 
piece of wood of which I have just spoken; and 
showing it to the boy I told him to make pates 
for us having exactly the same shape. I notified 
all my comrades. The following week, everyone, 
before leaving, left the piece of wood pierced with 
holes under his bed, and we returned to the beat 
of drums, each with a smuggled pate which we 
had the pleasure of concealing from the glances 
of all the custom's men of the school. We re- 
peated this every week. During the time of my 
stay at Fontainebleau, the secret was well kept. 
I do not know what took place later, but as every- 
thing has an end in the best possible world, even 
the most useful things, the pates de giherne must 
have had their day of mourning. 

Duels were frequent at the military school. Be- 
fore I came there fighting was done with the bayo- 
nets, but a pupil having been killed, this weapon 
was suppressed. This was no hindrance: pieces 
of foils were procured, and if necessary compasses 
•were fastened to the ends of sticks, all this to ap- 
pear bold. When through a duel one had acquired 



12 AN OFFICER OF 

this title, and could add to it that of smoker, one 
was at the height of glory. 

One fine day, during a review. General Bella- 
venne announced the names of those who the next 
day were to depart for the army. Oh I what emo- 
tion while he was reading his list ! our hearts beat 
to bursting in our breasts. What joy among the 
chosen! what anxiety among those whose names 
had not yet been called! To put on an officer's 
coat, wear the epaulet, carry a sword, oh! what 
fine things when one Is eighteen! We were pri- 
vates; a moment after we became officers: a single 
word had produced this happy metamorphosis. 
Man is always a child, at all ages he needs a play- 
thing; he often esteems himself according to the 
coat he wears ; he is perhaps right, since the multi- 
tude judges according to the clothes. However 
that may be, with our second-lieutenant's epaulets, 
we considered ourselves something. 

A captain of the school was detailed to conduct 
us to the Emperor's general headquarters. We 
travelled post, so we said ; the fact Is that we were 
piled by the dozen lots in wagons, and that by 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 13 

going at a walking pace from morning until night 
wc made two stages- a day. 

In all the towns, our greatest occupation was 
to have the sentinels present arms to us; nothing 
was so funny as the serious air and especially the 
indifference we affected when saluting them; all 
the old soldiers before whom we passed and re- 
passed ceaselessly must have made great sport of 
our childishness. 

The ambition of each of us was to have a cer- 
tain rakish air: we smoked, we drank liquor; we 
imagined that these good habits would give us a 
military appearance. Our clothes, our epaulets, 
everything was new, everything was fresh from 
the shop. We exposed them to the rain and the 
sun to give them something of the look of the 
bivouac. In spite of this, the buttons of the school, 
our beardless faces, betrayed us and Captain Dor- 
nicr, who marched at our head, showed suf&ciently 
that with our week-old epaulets, we were still but 
school-boys. 

We travelled merrily, for we were young, with- 
out cares and full of hope. While going through 



14 AN OFFICER OF 

Prussia, then through Poland, then again through 
Prussia, now well, now badly, we always laughed. 

It was at the birth-place of Copernicus, at Thorn, 
that we noticed that we were in the neighbourhood 
of Napoleon's army. That city, encumbered with 
men from almost all the regiments, had half of 
its houses transformed into hospitals. We were 
obliged to take lodgings in granaries or In stables ; 
there was nothing available between the two. We 
were beginning to think that war might possibly 
not be the most beautiful thing In the world. 

The army at that time occupied the cantonment 
which it had taken after the battle of Eylau, won 
by the French . . . and by the Russians, as 
they said.^ Napoleon was at Finkensteln,^ review- 
ing, repairing the losses of the month of February, 
imparting to all his extraordinary activity. It is 
there that for the first time I saw that astonishing 
man, of whom some have attempted to make a god, 
and whom certain Imbeciles have called a fool. 
He has proved that he was neither one nor the 
other. The judgments passed on him to this day 
have been too close to the events to be free from 
partiality. For a long time to come it will be 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 15 

impossible to write a good history of Napoleon; 
for such a thing to be, his contemporaries and 
their sons will have to be dead; enthusiasm cooled, 
hatred dead. Then, and not till then, a man free 
from prejudice, consulting the thousands of vol- 
umes already written and those to be, will be able 
to find truth in the well. Out of these materials, 
a monument shall arise superb, imperishable. To 
assist in this grand construction, I bring a grain 
of sand. 



THE BIVOUAC AND THE MARAUDERS 



CHAPTER II 

THE BIVOUAC AND THE MARAUDERS 

Here we are in a beautiful plain, furrowed by 
artillery, trampled by cavalry; It has rained all 
day. It Is here that we are going to sleep. The 
order Is given; twenty men of each company are 
sent Into the neighbouring villages to bring back 
wood, straw, supplies. Soon a curious sight pre- 
sents itself before our eyes. " The market will be 
good," say the soldiers, " the dealers are coming." 
In fact, from all sides, we see hurrying forward 
our fearless freebooters loaded down with sacks 
full of poultry, baskets of eggs and loaves of bread 
stuck one after the other on ramrods. Some push 
before them sheep and cows, oxen and pigs ; others 
make peasants, put In requisition, carry the straw 
and wood. Judging by the scowling faces of the 
peasants, by the interjections which escape them, 
one can easily see that they are not pleased, but 

19 



20 AN OFFICER OF 

their words are drowned by the cries of the animals 
and by the soldiers' peals of laughter. 

When one is at the bivouac, near the enemy, 
every man lies down fully dressed; each sleeps, 
one might say, with his eyes open; one must be 
ready for any emergency. Sometimes, we have 
remained in our boots for a month, which is, to 
say the least, very uncomfortable. Sometimes also, 
when lying down, the desire came over one to 
unbutton one's clothes ; one loosened a buckle, then 
another, and it required more time to remedy this 
little disorder than if one had been entirely un- 
dressed. When the season is cold everyone lies 
about the fire ; but one gets toasted on the one side, 
while being frozen on the other ; one of course has 
the resource of turning around, but that is not at 
all easy. 

When one happens to be in the second rank, one 
can then undress ; less precautions are necessary. 
The officers have linen sacks in which they thrust 
themselves and which serve as sheets. As mat- 
tresses and feather beds are always replaced by 
bales of straw, the linen sack is much more agree- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 21 

able than the sheets: the seam allows nothing to 
get Inside. 

The time of awakening at the bivouac Is never 
amusing; one has slept because one was tired; but 
on rising, the members of the body are benumbed, 
the moustaches, like tufts of lucern, have on each 
hair drops of dew; the teeth are clinched; one has 
to rub one's gums to re-establish the circulation. 

Those who have never been to war will never 
be able to form an Idea of the Ills It brings with 
it. I shall not give a complete description of 
them. It would exceed the limit I have prescribed 
for myself. I shall only say a few words about 
our life at the bivouac and the waste which took 
place In the army. We lived on what the soldiers 
found, and living would have been Impossible other- 
wise : our rapid marches prevented our stores, when 
we had stores, from following us. In rich coun- 
tries, there were brought to the camp twenty times 
more provisions than It was possible to consume. 
The remainder was lost. The soldier lives from 
day to day; yesterday he lacked everything, to-day, 
if he has an abundance, he forgets the privations 



aa AN OFFICER OF 

of the evening before and does not worry about 
the morrow ; nor does he consider that the follow- 
ing days other regiments will come to the position 
he is going to leave, that while taking what he 
requires it would be well to leave something to 
those who are to follow. . . . Not at all: 
one company of a hundred men has already killed 
two oxen; it is sufficient; after this there are found 
four cows, six calves, a dozen sheep : everything is 
pitilessly put to death, so as to eat the tongues, 
the kidneys, the brains. A cellar is entered wherein 
twenty casks stand in battle-array imposing and 
majestic: there are no tools to pierce them, but 
soldiers are never embarrassed; they fire gunshots 
through them, and soon twenty fountains of wine 
gush from all sides, to the loud peals of laughter 
of those present. Should a hundred casks be In 
the cellar they would have the same fate, for after 
all one must be able to taste the best. 

Still another motive prompts certain soldiers to 
hunt for what they require to live: and while ap- 
pearing to be looking for bread, they enter houses 
and succeed in taking possession of the owner's 
purse. Seeking for bread is an excellent pretext; 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 23 

when they do not receive their rations regularly, 
it Is Impossible to prevent marauding. The chief 
reply of army plunderers Is this: *' I am hungry, 
I seek bread." There Is no answer possible to 
this sentence. When It Is Impossible to give them 
bread, you must let them have their way. The 
horsemen have a double excuse: they are looking 
for fodder for their horses. A hussar was sur- 
prised by his captain while he was searching a 
wardrobe. 

" What are you doing there? " asked the officer 
angrily. 

*' I am looking for oats for my horse." 

" A good place to look for It I " 

" I have already found In the library of this place 
a bale of hay surrounded by a thousand sheets of 
paper; why should I not find oats In this ward- 
robe?" 

The worthy soldier had plundered the plant 
collection of an amateur botanist without seeing 
aught else In It than a bale of hay for his horse. 

In every regiment, In every company, there ex- 
isted determined marauders who travelled on the 
sides of the road, at two or three leagues from 



24 AN OFFICER OF 

the column. Sometimes they were attacked by the 
enemy; but it may be said that the Intelligence of 
the French soldier equals his bravery. These gen- 
tlemen chose among themselves a dictator who 
commanded them, and often these Improvised 
generals have fought serious battles and won 
victories. 

When the English army of General Moore was 
retreating at Corunna,^ our advance-guard, which 
was in pursuit, was much astonished to come across 
a stockaded village. The tricolor flag waved over 
the steeple, the sentinels wore the French uniform. 
Officers approached and soon were told that for 
three months two hundred marauders had occu- 
pied this village. 

Cut off in their retreat, they had established 
themselves In this post and had fortified It. Often 
attacked, they had always repulsed the enemy. 
Their general In chief was a corporal; sovereign 
of this colony, his orders were obeyed like those 
of the Emperor. On entering the village the offi- 
cers directed their steps towards the residence of 
the commander; he was on a hunt with his staff. 
Shortly after he returned and told his story, then 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 25 

was seen what bravery combined with intelligence 
can do. 

We were at the bivouac on a beautiful night; 
I was not asleep ; seated by the fire, I was smoking 
my pipe by the side of the soldier in charge of the 
soup. While looking at the boiling billows, I 
noticed from time to time something black which 
passed above and disappeared immediately in the 
depths of the enormous kettle. This something 
excited my curiosity. I bravely drew my sword 
and stood there watching for the black spot in its 
passage; after having missed it several times, I 
finally caught it : it was one mouse, two mice, three 
mice, four mice. I awakened the cook. 

" Well ! comrade, it appears that we have queer ly 
seasoned soup to-day I " 

*' The same every day, lieutenant: potatoes and 
cabbage, I never vary." 

" And the whole thing cooked in a decoction of 
mice. Here, look at the fine vegetables I have 
fished out of your kettle." 

" Impossible, lieutenant." 

" It Is so very possible that It Is true. Where 
the devil did you get your water ? " 



26 AN OFFICER OF 

" In a vat, at the neighbouring village." 

" Then you did not see what it contained? " 

" It was dark, I felt that it was water, I took 
some to make my soup. Who would ever imagine 
that, In a vat at a peasant's, one would find a 
squadron of mice? " 

" You might have poisoned the entire company, 
for If your vat is made of copper . . ." 

" It Is made of wood, I am sure of It, do not 
worry." 

" All the same, you must throw away your soup 
and make some other." 

" Impossible, lieutenant, I should not have the 
time. All those big fellows who are snoring about 
us will awaken shortly: their appetites will be 
awake before they are; and if by ill luck the soup 
were not ready, I should be rewarded by fifty kicks 
or so, you know where. I beg you, lieutenant, the 
mice are taken out, tell no one, the soup will be 
good all the same and all you will have to do is 
to eat with some other company." 

" And what will you do? " 

" rU eat some." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 27 

He did. Later he told me that he had never 
before tasted soup so good. 

Now, this is how this accident had happened. 
In many farms in Germany, to get rid of mice, 
people make use of a vat half filled with water. 
A few small boards are placed on top. Bacon is 
placed on these, flour, any sort of bait. As soon 
as the mice walk on this bridge, a spring is set in 
motion, the board tips and the mice fall and are 
drowned. The spring is reset automatically: It 
is always ready to do its duty. It is from that 
sort of a reservoir that our bivouac chef had drawn 
the water of which he made so queer a soup. No 
one noticed anything; the soup was considered 
excellent. 

Between the camp and the bivouac properly 
called there still exists something which Is neither 
the bivouac, nor the camp. At the bivouac one 
sleeps entirely in the open air; at the camp one is 
in barracks well set in line ; but in that something 
which takes after both, one finds oneself under 
small shelters which protect from the rain. 

They are built only in places where it is expected 



28 AN OFFICER OF 

to remain some days: for a single night no such 
trouble is taken. This sort of shelter Is simply 
a roof of straw on three walls of straw ; the open 
part is the highest, the closed part is toward the 
wind. Each establishes himself as he pleases, 
selects the ground to his liking, and the whole pre- 
sents a rather attractive picture. 

In this sort of barrack it is impossible to stand, 
except perhaps near the entrance. One sleeps very 
well In them, but in the morning one must make 
one's toilet in the open air, which saves one from 
opening windows. What varied scenes a clever 
artist could sketch! But all of them would not 
find admission to the Louvre. 

On the day of our arrival at Tilsit, there were 
rumours of a peace armistice ; Immediately the shel- 
ters were constructed solidly enough to resist the 
Inclemencies of the season for a whole week. I 
was lying In the evening by the side of Laborle, 
my lieutenant, when we were visited by Hemere, 
sub-lieutenant of our regiment. I was beginning 
to fall asleep ; his coming awoke me ; but on hear- 
ing the turn taken by the conversation, I thought 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 29 

it proper to pretend to sleep. This is the dialogue 
word for word; I shall never forget it: 

" Good evening, Laborie." 

"Good evening, well! aren't you going to 
sleep?" 

" Ah! yes, go to sleep, I have something else to 
do, faith! I'll be on foot all night." 

" I understand that peace is about to be made, 
that the amnesty has even been signed, and I be- 
lieve it, since the quartermaster and the musicians 
have arrived." 

" Whether they make peace or war, will not 
change the fact that after having marched all day 
long, I still have a fine task for to-night." 

"What is it?" 

" The colonel is sending me out to look for a 
mill which stands six leagues from here. I have 
no one to show me the way; the villages are de- 
serted, not a peasant to serve me as a guide. All 
I have been told is that the mill is called Briins- 
miihl. I have four wagon loads of grain to be 
ground; I am taking along some bakers to make 
bread and we shall bring it back here." 



30 AN OFFICER OF 

" Good news, comrade ; hurry, and above all 
try to put aside a few good loaves for me." 

" That goes without saying, but I came to see 
your map. I have been told that you had a 
map." 

" Yes, I have, and a fine one, too." 

" Shall we find the mill on it? " 

" I should say so I Everything Is on my map." 

Now, you must know that Laborle's map had 
been picked up at the bivouac, among the various 
objects found by marauding soldiers. To give 
himself an air of Importance, Laborle unfolded his 
map at every Instant: we often gave one another 
the cue and as soon as he had folded it up, each 
on some pretext or other came along and made him 
unfold it again. 

" Here Is my map," said Laborle as he spread 
it on the ground near the fire, and stretched him- 
self flat on his stomach by its side; " what's the 
name of your mill? " 

" Briinsmiihl." 

" Come ... let us look for It . . . 
here, there Is Berlin, here is Saint Petersburg, It 
must be between the two." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 31 

" That's so, you must be right; yet I see no mill; 
It may have been forgotten." 

"Forgotten! I tell you there's everything on, 
my map." 

" And I tell you that I do not see it." 

" And yet it's large enough ; hello, there it is." 

And Laborie pointed out to Hemere the star 
of the winds printed on the margin, and whose 
four points were not unlike the wind-sails of a mill. 

" Hello, why sure enough," said Hemere, admir- 
ing the superior knowledge of Laborie. " Do you 
think it is very far? " 

*' Why no, can't you see? " 

And Laborie measured with his hand the dis- 
tance from the mill to the intermediate point of 
Berlin and St. Petersburg. It was at most a foot. 

" But what road shall I take to reach It? " 

" You must admit that you're very stupid, the 
least thing troubles you; there's your mill: there, 
look at the map, the mill is there; welll on leaving 
this place, you turn to the right, go straight ahead, 
and if you walk fast, you will soon have reached 
it." 

My conscience reproached me a little for allow- 



32 AN OFFICER OFj NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

ing this poor devil to spend the night running after 
the star of the winds. I was on the point of wak- 
ing up, but M. Hemere was of a teasing disposition, 
a bit evil-tongued, clamouring against the young 
people, who had become officers without serving as 
he had in the army of Sambre-et-Meuse, and, faith, 
I resolved to abandon him to his fate, so as to 
make game of him in turn. I assure you that he 
was well received when he returned three days after 
with his wagons of wheat, and without having been 
able to locate his mill. 



THE MARCHES 



CHAPTER III 

THE MARCHES 

We marched to the right, to the left, forward, 
sometimes backward; we marched all the time. 
Very often we knew not why; the bobbin which 
turns while unwinding its thread does not ask the 
machinist the reason of the movements through 
which it goes; It turns, that Is all; we did as the 
bobbin. It was not always a pleasure, but the habit 
contracted, the necessity of obeying, the example 
which each set and witnessed, all that had 
turned us Into machines; they go, we were going. 
When we stopped, the soldiers, all astonished, 
asked each other the reason. 

" That's funny," they said, " the clock has 
stopped." 

On the morrow of the first bivouac of a cam- 
paign, he who saw the enormous quantity of 
breeches, long black and white gaiters, collars, 
stockings, covering the plain where we had slept, 

35 



36 AN OFFICER OF 

might have imagined that the enemy having sur- 
prised us during the night, we had run away In 
our shirts. You will perhaps not be sorry to know 
why all these breeches were left there, empty and 
forsaken. 

Formerly a soldier received gratis a pair of 
breeches which he seldom wore; he was made to 
pay for a pair of trousers which he always wore. 
The contractors for linens and foot-gear, specu- 
lators aiming at consummation, stuffed the knap- 
sacks with long white and black gaiters, stockings, 
black and white collars, things useful solely to 
those who sold them. In the garrison, the soldiers 
had to keep all these effects under pain of being 
compelled to buy others the next day. But at 
the first bivouac, on beginning a campaign, each 
one reduced his knapsack to the smallest possible 
size by ridding It of all useless articles. 

The military administration has made Immense 
progress since peace was declared. To-day the 
soldier receives a pair of cloth trousers, and It is 
a great Improvement : the breeches no longer exist. 
I have never been able to understand why under 
Napoleon, when we were always at war, the sol- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 37 

diers should have been dressed in the disgraceful 
breeches which, squeezing his leg, prevented him 
from walking freely. Beside this, the knee, cov- 
ered by a long gaiter which buttoned above, was 
again squeezed by a strap which held tight the 
strap fastening the breeches. Underneath this an 
under garment held by a string added to the 
hindrance to the legs. All told, there were three 
thicknesses of cloth, two rows of buttons super- 
posed, and three straps bound to paralyse the efforts 
of the most dauntless walkers. 

In 1806, Napoleon had adopted white clothes 
for the infantry; all the recruits coming from 
France were dressed as clowns; which made a 
very ugly combination when they found them- 
selves mingled with other soldiers dressed in blue. 
It was a very strange idea to give white clothes 
to troops destined to pass their lives In the bivouac.^ 
You should have seen how dirty these young fel- 
lows were ; accordingly the first time that the Em- 
peror saw them, the counter-order was given, the 
white clothes were withdrawn. This did not hin- 
der the promoters of the Restauration from again 
trying the experiment in 18 15. They at least 



38 AN OFFICER OF 

had an excuse ; they wanted to do as before. But 
the Emperor, who always made us sleep in the 
open air, how could he ever Imagine that he would 
have a beautiful army with soldiers dressed as 
clowns ? 

The Imperial Guard was magnificent and ren- 
dered great services when It fought. This should 
not astonish; It was recruited In the picked com- 
panies of our regiments. For this guard were 
taken the strongest and bravest men, who already 
had four years of service and two campaigns. 
What could one not expect from a company of 
such soldiers! — It was formed of the pick of 
the picked. The soldiers of the line called those 
of the Guard the Immortals because they seldom 
fought.^ They were reserved for grand occa- 
sions and that was proper, no doubt, for tjjc 
arrival of the Imperial Guard on the battlefield 
almost always decided the question. Between the 
line and the Guards, there existed a jealousy which 
was the cause of many quarrels. Everyone knows 
that each member of the Guard had the rank im- 
mediately above the one he occupied. In the line 
all cried against this privilege and all did their 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 39 

utmost to acquire it. Those who had obtained it 
considered it perfectly natural: they could not 
imagine how petty officers of the line could have 
the stupendous pretension to march as equals with 
the Imperial Guard. Such is man, and thus he 
will remain until the end of the ages. When in 
France the question of equality has come up, every- 
one wanted it with those ranking above him, but 
not with the others. 

" I am the equal of the Montmorencys, the 
street-sweeper is not my equal " ; that is what many 
people had said to themselves. People have cried 
against titles and decorations; and after having 
taken them from those who had them, they loaded 
themselves down with them. How many austere 
republicans have we not seen become chamber- 
lains, tribunes become peers of France, who with- 
out the slightest ceremony exchanged the title of 
citizen for that of Monsieur le Due or Serene 
Highness. 

We were on the march ; a baggage-wagon drawn 
by four mules tried to cross the line of my regi- 
ment, and the soldiers successively passing before 
the noses of these poor beasts took a mischievous 



40 AN OFFICER OF 

delight In preventing them from advancing because 
they belonged to the Imperial Guard; one of the 
soldiers exclaimed In a bantering tone: 

" Come, soldiers of the line, make way for the 
mules of the Guard." 

" Bah! " rephed another, " they are donkeys." 

" I tell you they are mules." 

" And I, that they are donkeys." 

"Well! suppose they are, what difference does 
It make? Do you not know that In the Guards 
donkeys have the rank of mules?" 

The Imperial Guard, at first composed of old 
regiments of grenadiers and of chasseurs, had been 
Increased by fuslleers, and then to these were added 
sharpshooters, flanking troopers and cadets. The 
organisation of this corps was exceptional. The 
old regiments were members of the old Guard and 
the others of the young Guard. Superior officers 
and captains had been taken from the first to form 
the second ; they retained their ranks and preroga- 
tives, while the lieutenants and sub-lieutenants 
stood about where they did In the line, excepting 
for the uniform of the Guard which they had the 
honor of wearing. There existed therefore an 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 41 

enormous disproportion between the captain and 
the lieutenant as to rank In the army and pay. 
In the regiments of flanking troopers, who wore 
the green uniform, the captains and superior 
officers wore the blue uniform of the old Guard, 
which produced a singular combination. 

In creating new regiments, the administration 
had exhausted all denominations, even to making 
grenadiers recruits of the Imperial Guard. These 
words Imperial Guard and recruits sounded badly; 
they seemed astonished at finding themselves 
together. The officers of this body gloried In the 
first of these titles, but they admitted the second 
with difficulty. 

On their baggage-wagons could be read In letters 
two feet high : Imperial Guard, regiment of 
Grenadiers, then in pica letters the word recruits 
abridged to RCS seemed to be ashamed of being 
in such fine company. From that time these young 
grenadiers were called nothing but RCS. This 
denomination became proverbial. RCS was 
synonymous to recruit. " You're only an RCS," 
said the soldiers to each other in a dispute, and I 
have even heard officers say seriously: "We are 



43 AN OFFICER OF 

going to have from France a detachment of RCS." 
Napoleon Is the one man who knew best how 
to make an army march. These marches were fre- 
quently very painful, sometimes half of the soldiers 
remained behind, but as willingness was not lacking 
In them, they reached their destination later, but 
they reached It. Nothing so annoys them as a 
badly given order, badly understood and which 
makes them walk more than they should; that is 
what they call marcher pour les capucins. 

Or else when some hesitation causes them to 
remain a few moments on the same spot without 
knowing If they are to stay or go, that Is called 
droguer. A French army Is always In good hu- 
mour when fighting; but her best soldiers are good 
for nothing when they droguent or marchent pour 
les capucins. 

Demand of them all possible efforts; they will 
obey without a murmur; but see that your orders 
are positive, well worded, properly transmitted. 
In the contrary case, they will send the general 
to all the devils. Frederick II was saying one day, 
and M. de Montazet, a general In the service of 
Austria, who was a prisoner at Berlin, heard It 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 43 

and repeats it in his Memoirs : " If I commanded 
Frenchmen, I should make of them the best troops 
in the four quarters of the world. Overlook a few 
slight blunders, never annoy them unseasonably, 
encourage the natural gaiety of their minds, be 
just to them, even to scruple, do not trouble them 
with any trifles, such should be my secret to render 
them invincible." 

After the campaign of 1809, we were cantoned 
in the neighbourhood of Passau, on mountains cov- 
ered with six feet of snow. It was another uni- 
verse, a new Siberia; we might have said as the 
soldier who, on the heights of the Tyrol, wrote 
to his parents: " We have reached the end of the 
world; at a hundred paces from our camp, the 
earth ends, with our hands we can touch the sun." 
It would have been the more difficult for us to 
touch the sun, as it was invisible. In this charm- 
ing country of wolves, the layers of snow piled one 
on the other become so hard that it is impossible 
to bury the dead during the winter; they are put 
on the roofs while waiting for the thaw, what a 
thaw, good gracious ! what an ocean of mud ! each 
gutter becomes a river, each road a torrent. 



44 AN OFFICER OF 

We were very quiet in our villages, when we 
received, one fine night, the order to leave at once 
to assemble at Passau. The south wind had been 
melting the snows for several days; nothing could 
give an idea of the difficulty we had in climbing, 
and descending all these flooded mountains. A 
painter who might wish to portray a scene of the 
deluge should visit that country under similar cir- 
cumstances. The aides de camp, the estafettes, 
the orderlies on foot and on horseback crossed each 
other in every direction to hurry the detachments 
which they met. We had to be at Passau dead or 
alive at break of day. Officers and soldiers, every- 
body thought that war had begun again; what 
other motive could be given for this hurried march 
in times of peace ! 

In proportion as a company, a fraction of a 
company arrived at Passau, officers designated by 
the general embarked it on the Danube, which 
rolled mountains of water. The current was so 
increased by the melting of the snows that we 
reached the right shore only by going several 
leagues out of our way. Artillery horses fell in 
the water, boats upset, men perished. When we 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 45 

had crossed the Danube, we continued on our way 
without a moment's rest; we marched during forty 
hours. *' But why are we running this way? " said 
the soldiers; " what's going on that nothing should 
stop us, neither night, torrents, nor rivers?" 
Finally we knew the motives of this forced march, 
the longest, the most painful ever made, even dur- 
ing the war: we had to go to Braunau, to render 
military honours to Marie-Louise who was coming 
to France to marry Napoleon. Judging from the 
manner we were hurried along. It seemed as if the 
Empress was waiting for us. . . . We arrived 
two weeks ahead of time. 

On the frontier of Bavaria and Austria, near 
the village of Saint-Pierre, not far from Brau- 
nau,'^ architects who had come from Paris had 
constructed a superb barrack; It is there that Marie- 
Louise was handed over by the plenipotentiaries of 
Emperor Francis to those of Napoleon appointed 
to receive her. The Queen of Naples, and the 
prince of Neufchatel had arrived with an army 
of chamberlains, ladles In waiting, equerries, valets 
in all colours, of all ranks, of all kinds. In short 
all the bootless {dehotte). These people are no 



46 AN OFFICER OF 

doubt indispensable, for swarms of them arc to be 
found under all regimes and in all countries; an 
army of fifty thousand men could be set on foot 
with what the bootless of a sovereign cost. When 
Her Majesty appeared, the artillery made a ter- 
rific noise, the music of the regiments played out 
of tune ; the drums rumbled dully, for it was pour- 
ing, we had mud to our knees, and the Paris jour- 
nals went Into ecstasies on the good fortune we 
had had of being the first to salute our august 
and gracious sovereign. 

And yet this Is the way history is written. The 
next day the Empress left for Paris; we again 
took by short stages the road to our mountains, 
trying to persuade ourselves that we had had a 
very good time. 

To reach the battlefield of Austerlitz, the third 
army corps marched forty leagues in thirty-six 
hours, that is to say that the twentieth part of the 
soldiers arrived, the rest came in from hour to 
hour; officers left on the road picked up the strag- 
glers, and after a few moments' rest, they directed 
them towards their regiments. This rapid march 
was very painful for the soldiers ; they did not com- 




ALEXANDER FIRST OF RUSSIA. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 455 

plain, for they felt its necessity, because It had a 
great Influence on the result of the day. On the 
contrary, our run on Braunau became for them 
a subject of continuous complaint and of grum- 
bling. It was the topic of comparison every time 
they feared to march uselessly, or marcher pour 
les capucins: " It Is just as when we went to Brau- 
nau," they said. This march of thirty-six hours 
on Austerlltz, without a moment's rest, was of 
great Importance. An officer taken prisoner was 
questioned by Alexander. 

*' To what army corps do you belong? " 

" The third." 

"Marshal Davout's? " 

"Yes, sire." 

" That Is not true, that corps Is at Vienna." 

" It was there yesterday, to-day it Is here." 

Emperor Alexander was astonished at this news. 

Night marches tire the most; the greatest need 
of man is sleep. PIchcgru paid thirty thousand 
francs for a night of rest during which he was 
arrested. Sometimes the soldiers slept standing 
on the march, a stumble made them fall Into a 
ditch one on top of the other. 



48 AN OFFICER OF 

In Bavaria and in Austria, there are many bees, 
consequently much wax is gathered; the soldiers 
found quantities of it at the peasants'. In the 
night marches, in calm weather, each man lit two, 
three, four candles, some carried as many as fifteen 
or twenty. Nothing was so pretty as the sight of 
a division thus illuminated, as it climbed a hill by 
a winding road; all these thousands of moving 
lights presented a charming spectacle. The merry 
fellow of the company sang sentimental songs and 
everybody joined in the chorus. Farther off, an- 
other related the endless story of La Ramee who, 
after having obtained his leave, returned from 
home and travelled two hundred leagues to claim 
a ration of bread from his sergeant-major. La 
Bruyere has ascribed to Menalque all the examples 
of absent-mindedness he ever knew; the soldiers 
ascribe to La Ramee all the stories of old troopers ; 
La Ramee is the type of the French soldier. 

At two leagues from Neubourg, the regiments 
which were marching along, carrying their arms 
as they pleased, suddenly close their ranks; the 
drums beat a salute, the soldiers fall into a regular 
solemn step, the officers salute with their swords; 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 49 

a witness would think that he beheld a parade at 
the Tuileries. Why all these honours? They are 
addressed to the first grenadier of the Republic, 
to La Tour d'Auvergne ! ^ 

His tomb, standing near the road, is always 
saluted by the regiments of all nations ; it is known 
by the name: Tomb of the Hero. It is built of 
stone and bears the following inscription: 

A LA MEmOIRE 

DE LA TOUR D'AUVERGNE 

PREMIER GRENADIER DE L'ARMEe 

TU£ LE VIII MESSIDOR AN VIII 

DE L'ERE REPUBLICAINE 

On the opposite side may be read: 

\ LA mEmOIRE 

DE FORTIS DE LA 46E DEMI-BRIGADE 

TUE LE VIII MESSIDOR AN VIII 

DE l'£re rEpublicaine 

Fortis was La Tour d' Auvergne's colonel ; they 
died together at the very spot where their tomb 
stands. While we were protecting the Confeder- 



50 AN OFFICER OF 

atlon of the Rhine, this modest monument, re- 
spected by all, was cared for by the town of 
Neubourg. I like to think that no change has 
occurred: the hero of heroes should be honoured 
in all the countries of the world. 

La Tour d'Auvergne was the most brave among 
the brave; his disinterestedness and his modesty 
equalled his bravery. At the moment that his 
body was being laid in the tomb, it is reported 
that one of the grenadiers turned it In the direction 
of Neubourg saying: " Dead he must be placed 
as he was when living, always facing the enemy." 

His heart was embalmed, enclosed in a box of 
silver-gilt, and carried by the oldest grenadier in 
his company. It was a second flag for all the sol- 
diers of the 46th demi-brigade. The consuls of 
the Republic ordered that the name of La Tour 
d'Auvergne should be always at the head of the 
roll of the company of which he had been a mem- 
ber. The sergeant-major, at each roll-call, began 
with the name of La Tour d'Auvergne ; the oldest 
grenadier would immediately reply: " Died on the 
field of honour." 

Ordinarily, In the army, the subordinates Inherit 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 51 

the ranks and titles of their chiefs, but on the death 
of La Tour d'Auvergne, it was the contrary: his 
captain was proclaimed first grenadier of the Re- 
public by the soldiers of the 46th demi-hrigade; 
later events have proven that he was worthy of 
this high distinction. This captain was Cam- 
bronne. 

When you see a regiment marching rapidly on 
the highway, you believe perhaps that nothing Is 
more easy than to direct it. At the command of 
march, it starts, you say, and If it walks a long 
time straight ahead, it finally reaches its destina- 
tion. A colonel who should take no other care 
would leave behind half the soldiers of his regi- 
ment. The non-commissioned officer who marches 
ahead must have a short and regular step, for If 
the right walks at an ordinary pace, the left will 
gallop. The slightest obstacle to be found on the 
road were it only a rut to cross, causes all the sol- 
diers of the last battalion to run if they wish to 
make up their distance. If the first which meets 
the obstacle slows down for only a half second, 
the last will have to gallop for a quarter of an hour. 
An experienced chief sees these things at a glance, 



52 AN OFFICER OF 

he orders a short halt, and everything is restored 
to its accustomed course. When a regiment has 
walked for an hour, it stops five minutes to light 
pipes, this is called the halt of the pipes. A sol- 
dier should be deprived of no pleasure; for many 
this pleasure is even a need; in the middle of the 
day, there is the long halt which lasts an hour, 
each one lunches on what he has in his knapsack, 
then the march is resumed with a halt of five 
minutes between each league. 

To appreciate all these things, one must live 
with the soldier, one must see him at all hours, 
one must be with him under all circumstances. 
The officers of the ancient regime were quite as 
brave as those of the new, but seeing their soldiers 
only on battle days, at the King's review, to at 
once return to Versailles, they were totally igno- 
rant of these most important details. Had they 
known them, I greatly doubt if they would have 
bothered with them; their concern was to arrive 
at the army by post, the eve of a battle ; none ever 
failed to be there. 

Many women followed their husbands In the 
army,^ either because they did not wish to be sep- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 53 

arated from them out of conjugal affection, or be- 
cause their modest fortune did not permit of 
keeping up two households. However, when we 
entered on a campaign, they remained behind at 
the garrison; but as soon as peace was made, they 
were seen coming by wagon loads. These ladies 
travelled in cabriolets, barouches, wagons, or 
walked with the baggage-vans; chaste ears must 
have daily heard very improper conversations; 
eyes must have seen strange sights. In Germany, 
these ladies who followed the army lived in a 
rather agreeable manner: no danger existed for 
them; but in Spain things were very different. 
Travelling along the road, they were, as we were, 
exposed to gun shots, and when their escort, fall- 
ing in an ambush, placed them at the mercy of 
Spanish brigands, they suffered the most Infamous 
treatment. At the Salinas engagement, the wife 
of one of the battalion chiefs gratified the bru- 
tality of two hundred guerilleros. . . . She 
died as a result of the attack ; others whom I know 
did not die. 

In a skirmish near Burgos, the wife of an officer 
of my acquaintance had had her carriage broken, 



54 AN OFFICER OF 

and she was consequently compelled to follow on 
foot. She was soon overcome by fatigue; the 
perspiration ran down her forehead, her delicate 
members could no longer carry her body; it was 
Impossible for her to walk a step farther. The 
good husband was In despair to see his wife In 
such a sorry state. 

" Poor Laura," he said to me, " she will die 
on the road if I can not find a carriage, a mule, 
a horse, to carry her." 

" We shall find none to-day; but It seems to me 
that I've noticed in the rear-guard a soldier lead- 
ing a donkey, and if you could induce him to sell 
it, or else lend It to you . . ." 

" Yes, you are right, you're a friend of mine, 
you . . . Where Is that soldier? . . . 
Where Is that donkey? I would give fifty louts 
for a donkey, I must have a donkey for Laura; 
poor Laura, how tired she is ! " 

" She can go no further." 

" I would give a hundred louis for a donkey. 
Money is made to use, and what do I care about 
money If Laura Is suffering? Let us go and look 
up that donkey." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 55 

" I believe you'll get it much cheaper." 

" What do I care if it's dear, so long as I find 
a donkey? But where shall we find it? " 

" In the rear-guard; I believe it belongs to a 
marauder who is in hiding. Let us allow the regi- 
ment to pass ; let us wait, we shall soon have what 
we are looking for." 

" Come, Laura, a little courage ; walk on, I shall 
soon return." 

Little by little the column passes before us, the 
rear-guard appears, and we see a footsoldler who 
was leading by the bridle the long-eared animal, 
on which he had placed, on one side his knapsack, 
and on the other his gun to act as a counter-balance. 

" Ah ! there It is at last, the donkey I seek. I 
say, soldier, my wife is 111, she can no longer walk, 
you must sell me your donkey." 

*' Willingly, captain." 

" How much do you want for it ? " 

" Twenty francs." 

"Are you joking? Twenty francs I twenty 
francs! and for a stolen donkey, for you have 
stolen it, and you deserve that I denounce you to 
the general in chief." 



56 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

" But, captain, I have not stolen it; I found it, 
while going through the last village." 

" Yes, found, found. I'm not to be imposed 
upon." 

" Even though I had stolen it, you should be 
very glad, since you are in need of it." 

" Come now, here are two one hundred sous 
pieces; give me your donkey." 

" Oh I no, I want twenty francs." 

"Well! choose between my two one hundred 
sous pieces, or a complaint to the general in chief." 

" All right, take my donkey." 

" My friend," said he to me, " it's devilish dear, 
ten francs for a stolen donkey I But, never mind, 
money is made to circulate." 



THE CANTEEN-WOMEN 



CHAPTER IV 

THE CANTEEN-WOMEN 

It was a fine profession, that of canteen-woman. 
These ladies usually began by following a soldier 
who had inspired them with some tender senti- 
ments. At first they were seen trudging along on 
foot with a keg of brandy slung over the shoulder. 
A week after they were comfortably seated on a 
found horse. To the right, to the left, in front, 
behind, kegs, Bologna sausage and cheese, cleverly 
arranged, held one another in equilibrium. The 
month never ended without a van with two horses, 
filled with provisions of all sorts, being there to 
testify to the growing prosperity of their industry. 
It often happened that a party of Cossacks plun- 
dered these ladies when travelling in the rear of 
the army; then they began all over again, and 
soon everything was as before. 

An officer could give them no greater pleasure 
than to borrow money from them : the prospect of 

59 



6o AN OFFICER OF 

a few insolvent debtors was to them much less fear- 
ful than the Cossacks and the bands of stragglers 
who frequently relieved them of their ecus. They 
were thieves who robbed other thieves ; such things 
are seen occasionally in this world. 

In camp, the canteen-woman's tent serves as a 
company parlor; a tap-room, a coffee-house; it is 
the central gathering point. One plays, drinks, 
smokes there ; for what can one do in a camp when 
one's sole baggage is a porte-manteau as big as 
a sausage and, consequently, no books? On the 
first day of my arrival, I was taken to the canteen- 
woman in fashion then, and I there found thirty 
officers ready to play a game of lotos. Although 
this game is not very difficult, and although it does 
not require a great effort of the mind to follow its 
skilful combinations, I was ignorant of the way to 
call out the numbers: long had the winning num- 
bers come out, but I had as yet marked nothing. 
This is why: it is the custom in the army to call 
numbers by periphrasis; a fine is imposed on the 
one who dares use any other technical denomina- 
tion. I shall give a few examples : i is called the 
beginning of the world; 2, the little hen; 4, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 6i 

the commissary's hat; 5, the shoemaker's awl; 7, the 
gallows; 23} the two hunchbacks; 89, the Revolu- 
tion ; 90, our grandfather. I set myself to study- 
ing and I soon became strong enough to play my 
game. 

Laborle, of whom I have already spoken, 
thought very little of young officers graduated 
from military schools. My Ignorance surprised 
him greatly. 

" What the devil did you learn anyway at Fon- 
talnebleau? " 

" Mathematics." 

"What else?" 

" History." 

"What else?" 

" Drill." 

"What else?" 

" Fortification, drawing, . . ." 

" But do you do any of this? " said he to me, 
placing himself on guard, as if to make a pass at 
me. 

" Oh, some." 

" My dear, that's what you need ; all the rest is 
good for nothing. It's nonsense." 



62 AN OFFICER OF 

The worthy fellow was quite right, for his in- 
telligence did not go beyond a bottle or a tobacco 
pipe. To give you an idea of it, I shall tell you 
that one day I found him reading the " Tales " 
of Marmontel; there were hardly more than two 
hundred pages missing from the middle of the 
volume. This solution of continuity brought to- 
gether the end of '' Annette and Lubin " and the 
beginning of '' LauretteJ' Laborie continued his 
reading without noticing the deficit; the characters, 
the action, the location of the scene, all was 
changed; Laborie saw nothing but black on 
white. 

The canteen-women rendered great services to 
the army, while making their own fortunes; they 
were useful in certain circumstances. These 
women, endowed with uncommon energy, were 
tireless; they defied the heat, the cold, the rain 
and the snow like old grenadiers, they went all 
over to secure the component parts necessary to 
their trade. Those who have never lacked any- 
thing indispensable to life, can not imagine of what 
importance is a bottle of wine, a glass of brandy 
at certain moments. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 63 

A well trained canteen-woman always had a 
small reserve for the officers; she kept that for 
the grand days, which more than doubled the Im- 
portance of the service. What a happiness, In 
fact, when one finds oneself in ploughed land, wet 
to the skin, and expects to go to bed without sup- 
per, to find near at hand a good fire, a slice of ham 
or a bowl of hot wine; or both, which certainly 
is better still! 

That cost dearly sometimes, but money is good 
only to get what one needs. When one can no 
longer exchange its representative value for bread, 
gold is not worth so much as Iron. In the cam- 
paign of Russia, the soldiers passed In front of 
the treasury vans, abandoned on the road, without 
touching an ecus, because there was no baker in 
the neighbourhood. The great thing In this 
world Is bread, it Is the stomach whose periodical 
demands must always be listened to. Before it, 
passions, interests are silent; satisfy It first, you 
will think of the rest afterwards. 

Many canteen-women were as brave as old gren- 
adiers. That of my company, Theresa, carried 
brandy to the soldiers In the midst of shots and 



64 AN OFFICER OF 

shells; she was wounded twice. Do not believe 
that the hope of gain made her face dangers, it 
was a nobler sentiment, since on days of battle 
she asked for no money. In her disputes with 
other women, Theresa triumphed by reproaching 
them for not daring to do as she. With all these 
generous sentiments, Mme. Fromageot was terri- 
bly homely; but few women, judging from what 
I have seen {honni soit qui mal y pense) have had 
so fine a leg. 

It was rather amusing to see these ladles dressed 
in gowns of velvet and satin found by soldiers, 
and who had sold them in consideration of a few 
glasses of brandy. The remainder of the attire 
was not in keeping, for riding-boots and a forag- 
ing-cap completed it in a rather grotesque manner. 
Imagine, now, some buxom woman thus attired, 
astride a horse flanked by two enormous baskets, 
and you will have an idea of the queer sight which 
all this presented. 

These ladies were delivered, along the road, at 
the foot of a tree, continued on their way, and the 
mother and child were in good health. They 
never had vapours, nor attacks of the nerves, and 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 65 

never did barley water nor tea of any kind mod- 
erate in them the fires produced by alcohoHc 
liquors. On this diet they enjoyed an iron consti- 
tution; I should like to have the ladies' physicians 
of Paris reason on this matter. 

In the cities we did not bother with the canteen- 
women, they were left in the barracks to live with 
the soldiers ; if we met them on the streets, we did 
not deign to look at them. But in camp, it was 
altogether different; one then had a certain con- 
sideration for them, the homeliest became almost 
pretty; thus does a famished hunter devour with 
delight the piece of dry bread he by chance finds 
at the bottom of his game-bag. 

Laborie spent at the canteen all the time which 
the military service did not require of him; he 
never failed to say, as he sat in front of a bottle 
of wine or his glass of brandy: "Ah! we arc 
better here than at Eylau." This battle of Eylau 
always came up in his conversation, it served as a 
subject of comparison, it was for him the superla- 
tive of misery. No one could have any merit in 
the estimation of Laborie if he had not fought in 
the plain of Eylau. We received the Journal de 



66 AN OFFICER OF 

V Empire; one day, after having read It, I said to 
Laborie : 

" I see a work announced for which I am going 
to send." 

"What is it?" 

'^ Le Precis de la Geographic Universelle." 

"Who wrote that?" 

" Malte-Brun." 

" Who is that Malte-Brun? " 

" He is one of our best geographers." 

" To what regiment does he belong? " 

" He is not a soldier, he Is a man of learning, a 
man of great merit; he lives in Paris." 

" He's a great bird, your Malte-Brun ! I should 
have liked to see him at Eylau with his geography 
and snow up to his knees, with his science and no 
bread, with his merit and nothing to drink. He 
should have been there, we would have seen if he 
would have written books." 

We had in the army canteen-women who, 
through their bravery and the talents of their hus- 
bands, had risen very high in the world. Some 
were called Madame la baronne, others Madame 
la generale ; some even, on awaking one fine morn- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 67 

ing, had found themselves Madame la duchesse. 
I have known some who were bored in their 
splendid parlours, and regretted the animated and 
eventful lives which they formerly led. 

I have known others who, in fine carriages 
drawn by four horses, considered it very improper 
to have their progress delayed by new debutantes 
perched on a stubborn horse between two kegs. 
They forgot that formerly the meeting of a fine 
carriage annoyed them just as much. One even- 
ing, at Fontainebleau, the French comedians had 
just played the Mariage de Figaro, in the pres- 
ence of the Emperor. When the curtain had 
fallen, Marechal Lannes exclaimed : 

" When I think that formerly I almost had my- 
self trampled on and smothered to see that com- 
edy ! Well ! to-day, I see nothing amusing in it." 

" That's because," rephed Napoleon, " at that 
time you were in the pit, and now you are in the 
first boxes." 

And the Emperor was certainly right, but it is 
probable that that play had been murdered a bit 
by the artists of the camp. 



THE LODGINGS 



CHAPTER y. 

THE LODGINGS 

In general, the place we liked best was pre- 
cisely that which we left the soonest and vice versa. 
It was for us a very rare thing when the higher 
orders agreed with our preferences. One day in 
a chateau, the next day in a hut, we were more 
in contact with the inhabitants of a country than 
he who leaves one inn to go to another. People 
will find in this chapter a few observations of cus- 
toms taken on the spot, from day to day, among 
the different peoples we have visited. It is by 
lodging with other men, by dining with them, that 
one succeeds in knowing them. 

The soldiers travelling in France receive a billet 
for lodgings which entitles them to a place near 
the fire and the light {place au feu et a la chan- 
delle) ; therefore our Romans of the Empire pre- 
fer Germany to France. Among the good Ger- 

71 



72 AN OFFICER OF 

mans ^^ they found their dinner ready, their pay 
remained Intact and could serve for other pur- 
poses: a httle drop, tobacco and the rest. In 
Spain It was frequently worse than In France ; they 
found at their hosts' neither fire nor light. 

So as to have themselves well served, the sol- 
diers had a singular method. Living several to- 
gether, they agreed on the part they each had to 
play before entering the peasant's house. One of 
them played the ugly fellow; he swore, stormed, 
drew his sword and threatened every one. The 
women were frightened, and sometimes the men 
also. The master of the house came; then the 
other comrades acted the good apostles, said that 
the blusterer was the best fellow In the world, but 
that one had to know how to take him. 

" He Is fond of good food, good wine; he can't 
help It ; that's his way. When he Is served to his 
liking, he Is as gentle as a lamb, as a new-born 
babe, but when he receives only potatoes to eat 
or bad beer, he becomes terrible; none of us and 
even all combined could prevent him from doing 
something awful. For example, only yesterday, 
no later than yesterday, at eight leagues from here, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 73 

this veritable demon set fire to the house of a 
peasant who had been so rude as to put water in 
the wine he gave us. We don't want to excuse 
him, but our comrade was not in the wrong, you 
should never deceive anyone. Reflect 
see . . . doing things conscientiously . . . 
let the dinner be good, the drinks choice, and don't 
worry about the rest, we answer for everything." 

These speeches, amplified, paraphrased by the 
squad, usually made a great impression; the host 
complied with good grace; our jolly dogs asked 
for nothing better and everything went along 
smoothly. These comedy scenes were often acted 
by officers, but the occasion seldom presented it- 
self, for It was rare that in the same lodgings 
there should be a sufficient number to permit of 
distributing the parts. 

We were not beloved in Germany; far from 
It. The passing of the regiments was an enormous 
burden on the country. Our army was hated as a 
whole, but the individuals were liked. The jovial, 
frank and open character of the French easily won 
for them the friendship of good Germans, who 
are generally serious. In spite of the hatred of 



174 AN OFFICER OF 

one people for another, it was rare if one hour 
after his arrival, the French soldier who made an 
effort to please, was not on as good terms with 
his host as if he had known him for ten years. 
Share their tastes, smoke, drink beer, the Germans 
will like you. And then they had been so often 
told that the French were devils, that when they 
had to deal with well bred people nothing was 
spared to show the delight they felt ! 

In Spain, the individuals were no better liked 
than the whole. During a general uprising, a 
Spaniard would have murdered a Frenchman 
sleeping under his roof; a German would have 
saved him. Almost everywhere in Germany, I 
was well received; almost everywhere I have been 
asked to come back, if chance should give me the 
opportunity. 

When we had arrived at a lodging, officer, sub- 
lieutenant or private, everybody thought of pay- 
ing court to the lady or daughter of the house; 
often this served no purpose, sometimes they were 
successful, in any case it was good to keep in prac- 
tice. 

My captain was married, but he willingly for- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 75 

got It; I have known many officers who, under 
certain circumstances, had no better memories. In 
all these lodgings, they passed themselves off as 
bachelors; If they saw a young girl, they Immedi- 
ately made love to her, spoke of marriage, and 
occasionally they were listened to. Marriage I 
you know that this Is a magic word for a maid; 
a man whom she would not deign to look upon 
as a man, she considers with good will as soon as 
she believes him susceptible to making a husband. 
A husband! It Is a great affair, every day this 
sweet word comes In the mind of young persons. 
As a kaleidoscope, their Imagination makes them 
take on all forms, they build on the subject many 
castles In Spain, and the Lord knows how often 
they are disappointed. 

However that may be, my captain caused him- 
self to be listened to by means of this little un- 
truth, and I who almost had a proposal ready, 
but did not possess the face of a marrying man, 
was frequently repulsed with loss, although I was 
twenty years younger than my rival. The respect 
of which I have always made profession in favor 
of good morals, conjugal fidelity, and perhaps a 



76 AN OFFICER OF 

bit of jealousy, made me contrive a means of sup- 
planting him. As soon as my man began to play 
the gallant: 

" Captain," I said to him aloud, " the baggage- 
master has just arrived, I believe that he has a 
letter from your wife." 

" Keep quiet," he would whisper. 

But I pretended not to understand and I con- 
tinued bravely : 

" Napoleon, your oldest son (all officers' sons 
were called Napoleon), must be big; he must be 
progressing, he is a very intelligent boy; is he 
still at the Antwerp College ? " 

"What is that to you?" 

"And little Hortense (all officers' daughters 
were called Hortense; later they took the name 
of Marie-Louise), is little Hortense as mischie- 
vous as ever?" 

" That will do, that's enough. It's none of your 
business." 

''Ma foi, it is mighty fine to be married, to 
have children, one sees one's self again as one used 
to be; this bachelor's life is often very dull and I 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 77 

have never been so Inclined to abandon it as I am 
to-day." 

Immediately the young lady's answers to the 
captain became cooler, soon she no longer looked 
at him; he was married, consequently, he was a 
useless being. All the ground he lost, I gradu- 
ally gained and sometimes I have profited by these 
indiscretions. 

A country in which we were both very comfort- 
able and the extreme opposite, was Poland: indi- 
gence and luxury, that's what one finds at every 
step. The villages are frightfully filthy, in every 
peasant's house there is a room, or to speak more 
accurately, a stable wherein sleep the cow, the 
horses, the hens, etc.; one-fourth of the room is 
taken up by an immense bed which serves for the 
entire family. The father, the mother, the daugh- 
ter, the son-in-law all sleep there together, on 
straw and very much as a litter of pigs. Go out 
of this hovel wherein you have left nature in its 
primitive state, go to the chateau, you will find 
there all the refinements of civilisation: a choice 
library, all the polish of well bred people, an agree- 



78 AN OFFICER OF 

able conversation, all the comforts it is possible to 
have in Poland. A voyage in that country is a 
perpetual succession of antitheses. 

In truth, the Polish nobles spend eleven months 
of the year in their chateaux. They live there 
very economically, but they make up for this at 
the time of carnival and at Saint- John's feast; 
they then go to Warsaw, to Posen, to Cracow. 
There, everyone makes a ruinous display; the din- 
ners, the fetes succeed each other from day to day; 
the streets are encumbered with superb carriages, 
high gambling is Indulged in ; finally, the travellers 
return home and seek to re-establish the equilibrium 
of their finances by making the peasants work. 

This chateau life is not very agreeable in 
Poland; each family is isolated in each village; 
the roads being horribly bad, people can visit one 
another only when It freezes very hard or during 
the summer. I do not advise the professional 
gastronomists to go to Poland to take a practical 
course in the sublime meditations of Brlllat- 
Savarln. Nowhere, except in the cities, is there to 
be found a butcher or a baker ; the nobleman must 
have at home all that is necessary to animal life. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 79 

An ox which has to be killed supplies the family 
with fresh meat for three days and salt meat for 
three months, thus It is with everything else. 

In Poland, I have seen young ladies with the 
strange habit of sticking on their faces very black 
pear seeds; this resembled the patches with which 
our ladies formerly decorated themselves, and set 
off the whiteness of their complexions. 

" I am astonished," said I to one of these, " that 
you should succeed in placing your seeds on the 
same spot as the day before." 
" But I never take them off." 
" Then you do not wash your face? " 
"What's the use? My face is always clean." 
At Warsaw, one-half of the inhabitants is com- 
posed of foreigners, and specially Germans. The 
Polish Jews exclusively, or almost exclusively, do 
business there; they are inn-keepers, merchants, 
tailors, shoemakers; the Germans are doctors, sur- 
geons, apothecaries, lawyers; the Poles themselves 
are either nobles or peasants, slaves or lords; in 
that country no intermediate class exists. 

The society of Warsaw is very much like that 
of Paris; its women are very gracious and in no 



8o AN OFFICER OF 

way inferior to our charming compatriots. They 
follow French fashions and affect Parisian cus- 
toms. The Poles speak nothing but French even 
among themselves ; it is very bad form in Warsaw 
to speak Polish, unless one addresses servants. 
The Polish language is banished from good society 
as the Provencal patois Is in Marseilles. The 
study of foreign languages serves as a basis for 
the education of the Poles of both sexes. They 
are quite right in learning the languages of other 
peoples for no one, to my mind, will be tempted 
to learn theirs. I have tried to do so, but how 
can one succeed in pronouncing words which 
have four or five consonants one after the 
other ? 

In the cantonments occupied by the French army, 
the inhabitants were compelled to clean the streets, 
and It was the most vexatious task one could give 
them. Still these peasants, dirty, indolent, become 
very fit and brave soldiers. In their peasant 
clothes they look beastly, stupid, dull, but as soon 
as they have put on a uniform and they have been 
limbered up in the regiment, they are different be- 
ings. From beasts they become men, proud, fit, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 81 

intelligent, and they are not one bit inferior to 
the soldiers of the most civilised nations. 

The Polish horses are small, they are harnessed 
four abreast (these Konia are excellent and very 
fast) , they feed on anything given them, even old 
straw which has seen service on the roofs of houses. 
They have been able to resist all the privations 
that are experienced in war, while our handsome 
Normandy horses were like skeletons when they 
had gone without oats for two weeks. The car- 
riages de luxe have two horses abreast; they usu- 
ally have four or six horses. The traces are of 
excessive length. At Warsaw, a four-horse car- 
riage takes up more space than that of the King 
in Paris when it has eight horses. This mode of 
travelling Is rather pompous, It Is for that reason 
that the Poles have adopted It; they are fond of 
all that glitters and presents an appearance of 
magnificence; their servants are covered with 
braid, in imitation gold, it Is true, but from a dis- 
tance no one would know the dijfference. It is 
specially In winter that the Poles display great 
luxury In their equipages. One sees sleighs of all 
shapes; horses laden with bells, servants wrapped 



82 AN OFFICER OF 

In furs, present a singular sight. In summer, the 
north of Europe resembles our southern countries, 
but in winter it has an aspect particular to itself. 

In Poland, the roads are not paved; the trouble 
has been taken of tracing them through the forests, 
that Is all. During the winter, and when the 
French army tracked over that country in all di- 
rections, we encountered oceans of mud which It 
was impossible to cross. The mud of Pultusk has 
become unhappily celebrated : ^^ mounted men have 
been drowned in it with their horses, others have 
been seen to blow out their brains, despairing of 
ever getting out. 

Speaking of the mud of Pultusk, I shall tell the 
sad adventure of an officer of engineers. He 
found himself stuck In mud up to the neck and 
could not get out. A grenadier appeared: 

" Comrade," calls out the officer, " come to my 
aid, I am lost, I am drowning, the mud will soon 
choke me. . . ." 

"Who are you?" 

" I am an officer of engineers." 

" Ah! you're one of those who solve problems; 
well ! draw your plan." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 83 

And the grenadier went on his way. The sol- 
diers did not like the officers of engineers, because 
they never saw them fighting with the bayonet. 
They found it difficult to understand that one 
could render services to the army with a pencil 
and compass, and they resembled Laborie, who 
did not beheve that Malte-Brun could be a good 
geographer for the reason that this scholar had 
not been on the battlefield of Eylau. 

I have made you acquainted with the Germans 
and the Poles; since we have the time, you and I, 
we are going to take a trip to Spain. Usually, 
when one crosses a frontier, one Is prepared in 
advance to the changes In customs and language, 
but these changes are gradual. Here people 
speak French, while they understand German; a 
little further they speak German while they jabber 
French. It is only after having gone ten leagues 
on the other side of the Rhine that you find your- 
self in Germany. The same may be said with 
regard to the frontiers of Italy and Poland; but 
when you have crossed the Bidassoa, you are In 
Spain, entirely in Spain. Two minutes before you 
were In France; when you have crossed the river, 



84 AN OFFICER OF 

you are a thousand leagues away from It; the 
customs, the language, the dress, all are different. 
The transition is the same from Salnt-Jean-de-Luz 
to Irun, as It Is from Calais to Dover, and yet 
the BIdassoa Is but a brook. 

Everything was new to me In this singular coun- 
try, and I spent my days In visiting the streets, 
the cafes, the shops, to make my observations.^^ 
The Spanish language Is very easy for a Provengal 
who knows Latin, and I soon was able to hold 
my own with any one. But the Spaniards are 
not talkers; Instead of the gaiety, the openness, 
the frankness and loyalty which characterises our 
nation, I found only careworn, sombre brows, 
crafty faces of which our villains of the melo- 
drama are admirable copies. See those groups on 
the street corners, In the public places; to smoke 
a cigar and do nothing seem to be, for those who 
compose them, supreme happiness. In France, 
when ten persons are assembled, you can not hear 
yourself, each wishes to speak, each seeks to shine 
In the conversation; In Spain all is silence. 
Wrapped in their dirty cloaks covering clothes 
still more dirty, allowing only a half of their faces 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 85 

to be seen and the two fingers that hold the cigar, 
the Spaniards remain entire hours facing one an- 
other saying nothing, blowing on one another 
clouds of smoke. From time to time someone 
speaks, which he always does as briefly as possible; 
then the most loquacious of those present replies 
pues. This pues Is a preposition, a conjunction, 
an Interjection which answers everything. Ac- 
cording to the manner In which one pronounces It, 
according to the affirmative, dubitative or nega- 
tive sign which accompanies It, it means yes, no, 
according, but, however, you are right, I do not 
believe It, etc., etc. 

There Is still to be found in the Spanish lan- 
guage a word as frequently used: It Is carajo. 
Should these two words be suppressed from Span- 
ish conversations, only the smoke of the cigars 
would be left. Instead of saying carajo, the 
women make use of a diminutive : cara'i Is to carajo 
what our French je m'en fiche Is to a certain ex- 
pression which the Academy has not yet sanctioned. 

What a difference from our lodging of Ger- 
many, and specially with the good faces of our 
hosts I To the most careful cleanliness, to the 



86 AN OFFICER OF 

good nature of the inhabitants beyond the Rhine, 
succeeded the filth, the scowling faces of the Span- 
iards. Moreover, although accustomed to the 
climate of Poland, we were cold in Spain. In 
Biscay, in Castile, it is impossible to keep warm 
in winter; people there do not suspect that doors 
and windows are made to be closed. They know 
nothing of floors, carpets, the trade of chimney- 
sweep is unknown, for there are no chimneys. In 
the kitchens one sees a hole through which the 
smoke escapes, when it is willing to escape. In 
the great cities like Burgos and Valladolid, one 
can count one or two chimneys in the houses of 
the great lords, and the majority of these have 
been built by French generals who wished to be 
lodged comfortably. General Dorsenne had a 
chimney built in every one of his lodgings. 

To get warm, people make use of a hrasero, a 
metal vase full of coals lit in the street in the 
morning. It is placed in the principal room where 
all the members of the household assemble ; there, 
forming a circle, they toast their knees, which, how- 
ever, establishes a just compensation with their 
backs which are always freezing. Men and 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY Z% 

women pass around the cigarito which each smokes 
alternatively, and the conversation is as lively as 
in the street. The prettiest woman shows no re- 
pugnance In taking the cigar which comes from a 
monk's mouth; as for me, I smoked alone, for my 
own account, as In Poland, I drank from a glass 
belonging to me exclusively. 

When we lodged at Inns, as It was militarily, 
we were not charged for the noise we made, the 
bill would have been too large for the smallness 
of our purses; for we avenged ourselves by sing- 
ing at the top of our voices, for the privations 
Imposed on us by Castilian prodigality. This 
vengeance reached its destination. Of all the 
peoples In the world, the Spanish is certainly the 
one who eats and drinks the least; with what Is 
consumed by one hundred Paris bourgeois, one 
thousand Spaniards could be fed. 

The olla oulle, a soup. In Itself alone composes 
the three courses of the Spanish meals; I am mis- 
taken, the cigarito always comes In to act as a not 
very substantial dessert. Put in a kettle full of 
water, some chick-peas, some cabbage, a goodly 
number of green peppers, a small piece of bacon 



88 AN OFFICER OF 

or meat, cook the whole to a turn, and you dine 
as all Spain dines, when it dines well. 

In the villages, enter anywhere at the meal hour, 
you will always see the same course, without any 
variation. The people who live alone eat bread 
and raw onions, they do not go to the trouble of 
making olla because fire would be needed. The 
most essential things are at the lowest prices, and 
the result is that in this country, a household which 
possesses six hundred francs Income lives In rela- 
tive opulence, envied by the entire neighbour- 
hood. 

Since the beginning of the war, a swarm of 
French restaurateurs had pounced on Spain. 
They were located from halting-place to halting- 
place, from Irun as far as Seville Inclusively. In 
their establishments were to be found the best 
productions of French soil; their active relations 
with the best restaurateurs of Paris, supplied to 
the moneyed gastronomist a salutary resource as a 
change from the olla of the Spaniards. 

These dealers In beefsteak and chops charged 
very dear for what came out of their kitchens; 
they were approachable only by those who In an 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 89 

army are in the habit of trebling their pay by what 
they call le tour du baton (pickings) . 

The day after my arrival at Vittoria, I entered 
a shoemaker's shop to have my shoes mended. 
There was no one in the place; the master of the 
establishment was on the opposite side of the street 
smoking his cigarito. His shoulders covered by 
a mantle with many holes, he looked like a beggar, 
but like a Spanish beggar wrapped in his misery, 
of which he seemed more proud than ashamed. 
He comes near me, I explain my business. 
" Wait," he says ; and immediately calls his wife. 
" How much is there still in the purse? " 

" Twelve piecettes '^ ( 14 Fr. 40) . 

" Then I don't work." 

" But," said I, " twelve piecettes wiU not last 
for ever." 

" Quien has visto magnana? " (Who has seen 
to-morrow?) he replied, turning his back on me. 

I went to one of his colleagues who, probably 
not being the master of so important a sum, was 
good enough to work for me. 

The pride of the Spaniards has become pro- 
verbial; in that country, the lowest of beggars con- 



go AN OFFICER OF 

siders himself as noble as the King. Dressed in 
rags, he drapes himself like a Roman senator; you 
must be particular as to how you refuse him alms ; 
and it is a ceremony which one has to repeat often, 
because of the innumerable quantity of beggars 
with which Spain is filled; It is the country of 
Guzman d' Alfranche ; this hero of beggary could 
have been born nowhere else. 

Begging is a trade; every church door, every 
street corner decorated with an image of the 
Virgin or a saint has Its particular beggar. It Is 
a business which one exploits and sells. A ruined 
man, who knows not what else to do, buys a 
second hand saint, he christens It with the name 
of Saint James or Saint Pancrace, stands It near 
a mile-stone and becomes santero. The peasants 
give him alms, he prays for the dead in considera- 
tion of a salary, he recites In your presence the 
seven psalms of penitence, which he applies to 
the person you mention : this costs those Interested 
two sons. But if you wish to buy psalms said at 
his home, in his leisure moments, these cost less; 
he will sell you as many as you please at fifty 
per cent.-* less than the regular price. In such a 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 91 

contract as the seller delivers nothing, it Is to be 
feared that he may sell to others what you have 
just purchased ; then things are bound to be some- 
what mixed. The devout woman who spends a 
real in this manner believes she Is redeeming her 
former sins, just as the courtesan considers herself 
unseen because she has drawn the curtain In front 
of the image of the Virgin which always orna- 
ments her boudoir. 

If the Spanish men are morose and not given to 
talking, the women are lively, sparkling, fond of 
babbling and they do it quite well. In general 
they have but little education, but the natural wit 
and the charm which they display In saying noth- 
ings prevent one from noticing It at first. They 
have a thorough knowledge of the vocabulary of 
gallantry ; all phrases of love and of sentiment are 
familiar to them ; they have an Immense repertory 
of these. When the occasion offers, all that gushes 
forth as from a spring ; they seem to have acquired 
them by heart. As soon as I perceived their 
taste, I composed some very high-sounding tirades; 
I began to use them in writing and in speech, and 
things went along as smoothly as could be. 



92 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

The Spanish women possess a great charm: it 
is that they do not make you languish too long. 
The main thing is to be to their liking; when you 
are beloved, the preliminaries are soon gone 
through, and they are soon yours. I have read, 
I know not where, that a lover said to his mistress : 
" But what shall we do? Your mother does not 
leave you alone an instant." " Try to please me 
enough," she replied, " and do not worry about 
the rest." Spanish women all seem to say to you : 
" Be attentive to me, please me, if you can; do not 
think of my husband, do not bother about the 
others who may be watching; in spite of them all, 
the favorable moment will come; the sooner the 
better." 



THE FENCING-MASTERS AND THE 
DUELISTS 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FENCING-MASTERS AND THE DUELISTS 

In all regiments, there is a man whom the sol- 
diers respect at least as much as their colonel, and 
this man Is the fencing-master. He has several 
lieutenants who, under the name of assistants, 
exercise a part of that moral authority which the 
great master delegates to them. On my arrival 
in the regiment, I requested M. Malta . . 
to give me lessons In his art which I knew very 
imperfectly, and he taught me by rule how one 
should go about It to kill his man without ever 
being killed. For, as M. Jourdaln's master has 
so well put it: " The whole secret of fencing con- 
sists of two things : In giving and not receiving. 
Now, so as not to receive, turn the sword of your 
adversary from the line of your body, which only 
depends on a little motion of the wrist, either 
inward, or outward." 

M. Malta . . . who, I believe, had never 
95 



96 AN OFFICER OF 

read the ** Bourgeois Gentilhomme," made use of 
exactly the same language, which might prove, were 
it necessary, that Moliere was well acquainted with 
the human heart. He was a good eccentric; I 
am speaking of M. Malta . . . the things 
of which he boasted most, and which he regarded 
as claims to glory, were precisely those that a man 
of honour would have been ashamed to confess. 
He had sought a quarrel with all the most famous 
of his time, and he had killed them by the dozen. 
. . . I believe that he exaggerated the number 
of the dead somewhat; however, if one spoke in 
his presence of some celebrated fighter, I can affirm 
that his greatest desire was to measure himself 
with him. I was tractable at his lessons and he 
appeared very well pleased with my progress. 
" Lieutenant," said he to me one day, " if you 
continue this way, in two months I shall teach you 
politeness." By this he meant that he would teach 
me the salute and all the pretences of courtesy that 
ordinarily precede a fencing match. 

When we had reached the point where I could 
learn politeness, M. Malta . . . always urged 
me to make big eyes while saluting: " Lieutenant, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 97 

open your eyes, . . . more . . . still 
more. . . . When you salute, you must open 
your eyes like the crystals of a watch; you must 
show that you're present." When we wished to 
arouse his anger, we praised before him the fen- 
cing-masters of the other regiments; then M. 
Malta . . . would shrug his shoulders as a 
sign of corttempt, and always ended by saying; 
" Not one of those people would be worthy of 
sweeping my fencing-hall." 

Among his assistants, Dupre, a drummer, held 
a very distinguished place; he was his coadjutor, 
his successor, the heir-apparent of that great office. 
In the taverns, Dupre made the firstcomer buy 
him a drink, or else he invited the reluctant indi- 
vidual to follow him on the field to refresh them- 
selves with sword blows; it was his favorite expres- 
sion. Never did more insolent and blustering 
personage wear the shako on his ear. 

" You see that cuirassier drinking alone," said 
Dupre one day to his comrade I'Etoile, " wait a 
bit, I am going to demolish him." 

" Be careful ! should he fall on you, you would 
be crushed." 



98 AN OFFICER OF 

" My sword will compel him to fall on his 
back." 

And Dupre, approaching, seizes the glass of the 
man with the jacket of steel and drinks down its 
contents without stopping to breathe. It is but 
right to tell you that a fighting footsoldler always 
prefers to pick a quarrel with a horseman; the 
horseman is his natural enemy. Among the men 
on horseback, he will choose the cuirassier, espe- 
cially if the latter is very tall and stout; if he kills 
him, the act deserves greater praise. 

" Comrade, you are making a mistake." 
" Rather it is you who do not see clearly." 
" You take me for someone else." 
" Not at all, my dear, it is done on purpose." 
" Then you are trying to pick a quarrel with 
me?" 

" Of course; look, he is beginning to notice it." 
"If I put you in my boot, it will serve you 
as a guard-room." 

" Yes, but you have to put me in it first, and 
you will be dead before that happens." 
" Mtlle tonnerres! " 
" No noise, my friend, softly, let us not shout; 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 99 

between Frenchmen there is a way of settling mat- 
ters; come this way to show me your boot." 
'' And my sword at the same time." 
Five minutes after, the cuirassier was dead. 
However, one fine day Dupre found his master: 
the sword of a young recruit ran him through. The 
news was brought to us; everybody was delighted 
to hear It; everyone said that the blackguard had 
only what he deserved. Nevertheless the surgeon- 
major betook himself on the field of battle; he 
wanted to withdraw the steel from the wound 
to apply a dressing; the thing was at first consid- 
ered impossible, because the weight of the body 
In falling, had bent the point of the sword. It 
was necessary to call the armorer who straightened 
it. The operation was a long one; the wretched 
fellow must have suffered horribly; nothing, how- 
ever, appeared on his face ; on the contrary, while 
jesting with those present, he urged the surgeon 
to do his duty well. The sword was withdrawn, 
the wound bandaged; Dupre remained two months 
in the hospital and then ... he came out 
more of a blackguard than ever. One hundred 
thousand good people would have died of such 



100 AN OFFICER OF 

a wound. Dupre did not. Besides, it is remark- 
able that all these fighters were ordinarily very- 
bad soldiers; the man who, counting on his 
strength, seeks to pick a quarrel with the weak. 
Is necessarily a coward. On the days of battles, 
these blusterers always had a new pretext for 
remaining behind; they were to be seen only the 
following day. 

A recruit in their place would have received 
la savate,^^ but the reason they offered and always 
at the point of the sword closed the mouth of the 
whole company. 

The drummer Is In general a duelist, a fencing- 
master or at least an assistant master. The drum- 
mer Is quarrelsome, hard to get along with, a 
banterer, always ready to draw his sword; he Is 
the Paris gamin In uniform. Carrying no gun, 
having a sword as a sole weapon; he caresses it, 
polishes It, handles It as long as the day lasts, 
and when the occasion comes to draw, the blade 
does not stick In the scabbard. Not only Is he 
clever In handling the broadsword, but he also 
knows how to handle the small sword. When 
he travels, look at the top of his knapsack: two 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY loi 

capped foils, rolled up in his cape, present to the 
amateur their sharpened points adorned with two 
corks to prevent rusting. 

As long as he Is in the garrison, the drummer- 
assistant carries an orderly's short saher, he has to ; 
should he lose It, he would be compelled to buy 
another at the regiment store. But as soon as a 
campaign Is begun, he throws far away from him 
that vulgar blade to put in Its place an awl which 
he Is very careful to mount en qiiarte. It is by 
this token that one recognises all the fiends of a 
regiment; they all have the handle of the orderly's 
sword, but a blade as long as an ell at every step 
strikes their right heel. Indeed, it Is not com- 
fortable in marching, but one must suffer some 
inconvenience if one wishes to affect a ferocious 
air. They make themselves feared, or at least 
they think so, and that's a great pleasure for these 
gentlemen. 

I have seen fencing-masters fight together 
seriously, without motive, without hatred, without 
a reason capable of causing a duel. They fought 
to try their strength; one of them was killed; 
the other strutted about adding one more triumph 



102 AN OFFICER OF 

to his past exploits. I have seen two of these 
who in a match, quarreling over a denied pass, 
of common accord left their foils for their swords, 
and fought in the presence of fifty spectators who 
allowed them to do it. " You will not deny that 
one ! " said the victor as he ran his adversary 
through. It would be truly difficult to deny a 
sword thrust which pierced your chest. A fencing- 
master had placed over his door this singular sign : 
" Fighting here from ten to four." It was very 
convenient for the amateurs: they were always sure 
to find a champion ready to face them. 

One day I was crossing the bridge of Stettin; 
I was on my way to the faubourg Lastadie ; there I 
met an assistant, he was a sapper, a drunken, quar- 
relsome fellow; he combined all these qualities In 
one person ; to-day such a person is called a plural- 
ist. Our man had been drinking as usual, he was 
speaking to himself, zigzagging, and, to use a sol- 
diers' expression, he was on bad terms with equi- 
librium and was making scallops. 

" How! " he was saying while pulling out the 
hair of his long beard, " shall I not find out of 
the whole garrison a good fellow to face me? not 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 103 

one who will permit me to cut a button-hole In 
the middle of his stomach? Formerly I should 
have found a hundred ready to take sword in hand ; 
to-day not one; you are all soldiers of the pope. 
If I were the Emperor, I would put you before a 
cannon and set it off to teach you manners." 

" Well! what's the matter, friend? " asked one 
of his comrades whom he met fishing at the end 
of the bridge. 

** What's the matter? you ask me what's the 
matter? Well, I'll tell you what's the matter. It 
is that for the past two hours I have been looking 
for some good fellow willing to be freshened up 
by a few sword thrusts, and I have found none; 
I provoke them all and not one gets angry." 

" If you wish it, I am ready to do you that 
service." 

"Good, that's what I call speaking! I had 
always said that one could count on you. Let me 
embrace you. You are a Frenchman, you are a 
friend; that's the kind of a comrade to have." 

" Wait, let me take in my line, and I'm with 
you." 

" Ah ! the good fellow ! he is a grenadier I We 



104 AN OFFICER OF 

shall go yonder In that small wood, near the road 
to Dam; we shall be alone; no one will disturb 
us; It win be very comfortable, we shall fight as 
we please. Your sword is sharp, Is It not? " 

" Don't worry! " 

*' Good, mine cuts better than the razors of the 
company's barber." 

" That's the way It should be. Let's be off." 

I thought It was a joke and that the fisherman, 
being In full possession of his senses, had only 
agreed with the drunkard so as to take him home. 
Nothing of the sort; In the evening I heard that 
the combat had taken place seriously, and that my 
jolly dogs, both wounded In the face, had returned 
to the barracks, arm In arm, each one proclaiming 
the other his best friend. 

I know that the public will not believe me; if 
they had the occasion to study the ways of gar- 
risons and of guard-houses, they would see things 
more startling than this. But let us go farther 
up In military hierarchy; I am going to tell you 
about a scene of which I was a witness in Paris. 
An ofEcer of my company has a quarrel one even- 
ing on the boulevard with a captain who lived at 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 105 

Courbevoie. The discussion becomes heated and 
they make an appointment for the next day at 
the Bois de Boulogne. It was almost midnight, 
the captain was going to leave us, when we called 
his attention to a storm which was about to break. 
He replies that at this hour he would not be admit- 
ted in a rooming-house: "I am going to hire a 
cabriolet," he adds; "besides, I am not afraid of 
the storm." Then his adversary approaches and 
says to him : 

" Stay here, you will sleep with me, I offer you 
a half of my bed. We shall leave together for the 
Bois de Boulogne, it will be much more convenient, 
neither one will have to wait for the other." 

" I accept. But we shall fight." 

" Would I otherwise have offered you half of 
my bed? " 

Our two men went to bed together, talked of 
politics, manoeuvres, love affairs, and the next 
morning, after having eaten some cold chicken and 
drunk a bottle of champagne, they merrily went 
to try and cut each other's throats. One of them 
was gravely wounded, but did not die. 

I have known many officers who were a prey 



io6 AN OFFICER OF 

to duellomania; they thought themselves obliged 
to have an affair of honour every month. 

We also had generals who had the same tastes; 
to kill a man In a duel was a pastime with them. 
They did not digest the less well on that account, 
and they only slept the better; it was with them 
as It Is with us when we kill a few partridges. 
A general whom I do not wish to name was fight- 
ing a pistol duel with a young lawyer. " You are 
the offended party, monsieur, fire first, it is your 
right, but try to aim straight, for if you miss me, 
you are a dead man." The young man fired. 
" Imbecile ! your bullet Is In the trees, and mine is 
going to hit the third button of your coat, it will 
go through your heart, you will not suffer." As 
the cat which prolongs the agony of a mouse held 
in Its paws, the general took a long and careful 
aim. " Yes," he said, " it is too bad to die at 
thirty, with fine prospects, fame at the bar, a mis- 
tress. ... I understand your regrets . . . 
you should not have crossed my path. Come, say 
good-bye." A shot was heard: the young man 
was dead. 

At Ragusa, thirty officers were assembled at a 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 107 

general's ; while lunching, duels were discussed, pis- 
tol shooting; each cited some remarkable feat. 
One killed sparrows on the fly, another split bullets 
on the blade of a knife. The general sees a grena- 
dier passing in the street and calls him in. On 
entering, the soldier puts in his pocket a short pipe 
which a moment before he held in his mouth. 
" Keep your pipe," says the general; " continue to 
smoke, stand in the position of a soldier without 
weapons, still, head high, attention ! Turn to the 
right 1 Don't move! " At this moment the gen- 
eral takes a pistol, fires and breaks the pipe in the 
smoker's mouth. 

" Here is a louis with which to drink. Gentle- 
men, this is what I call shooting with a pistol." 

" Thank you, general," said the astounded 
grenadier; " another time, I shall not smoke when 
coming to your house." 

M. Hemere, the man of the mill, he who con- 
sulted Laborle's map with so much success, was a 
consummate fighter. Of a very small size, of a 
teasing disposition, he thought that people were 
always making game of him ; the least gesture was 
misunderstood; always asking for an explanation. 



io8 AN OFFICER OF 

he obtained it sometimes ; but, very often, these 
quarrels without motive, thanks to the intervention 
of the witnesses, ended on the field by an explana- 
tion and without recourse to the sword. 

To finish with M. Hemere, I shall say that owing 
to his continual teasing and getting angry at trifles, 
he found someone who meant business. The poor 
devil died in a duel, on the eve of the battle of 
Wagram. 

During the forty days which preceded that great 
day, the entire army was working at the fortifica- 
tions of the island of Lobau. Our soldiers were 
paid at the rate of fifty centimes a day. A young 
officer of engineers, in charge of the inspection of 
the works, seeing that the grenadiers rested too 
long, reproached them for it. The latter imme- 
diately went to complain to their captain of the 
manner in which M. Problem had treated them. 
It is thus that they designate the officers of 
engineers of whom they think very little. 

The captain, furious that someone else should 
dare to lecture his grenadiers, curls up his mous- 
tache and hastens to the officer to ask an explanation 
of his language. He was one of those brave fel- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 109 

lows who speak only of killing and cutting in two, 
one of those men, in short, who, to use the expres- 
sion of Moliere, are all sword thrusts and whom 
our soldiers call dealers in sudden deaths. 

" Monsieur, you have dared to say that my 
grenadiers . 

" Do not work. Yes, monsieur, and that's the 
truth." 

" I shall teach you, my little greenhorn, to hold 
your tongue." 

" Greenhorn I Greenhorn ! " 

" Yes, greenhorn, recruit, and I shall prove it 
to you presently." 

" I say, captain ! Do you imagine that you 
frighten me with your great moustachios? You 
no doubt think yourself very terrible because you 
haven't shaved for two weeks? But learn, mon- 
sieur, that if I wished, I myself could go without 
shaving." 

"Ah! you pretend to make fun of me! We 
shall see if you will be in a humour to jest when 
I shall have run you through." 

*' Softly, monsieur! If we should come to that, 
I hope to be there." 



no AN OFFICER OF 

" No explanation: on guard! " 

" On guard, I am willing; but I wish to 
say something: I am cool, you are angry, the 
match would be unequal; let us wait until to-mor- 
row." 

" To-morrow? to-morrow, you will have been 
dead twenty-four hours, I shall already have eaten 
your liver, I shall have digested your conscience. 
On guard! I want my grenadiers to bury you 
under your fortifications, then they'll work with a 
will." 

" You wish it, monsieur, I am ready." 

The young pupil of the Polytechnic School and 
the moustachlod captain draw their swords and the 
fight begins In the midst of the laborers who arc 
delighted to leave the shovel and pick for an 
instant and see the vexatious overseer punished. 

At the captain's first lunge, the officer of engi- 
neers warded the blow; his sword falling on the 
hand of his adversary, touched the little finger 
which was almost cut off. 

" You are wounded, monsieur," he said to him; 
** we shall stop right here, if it suits you." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY iii 

" Ah ! scoundrel ! do you not know that coups de 
manchette ^^ are not allowed?" 

" Monsieur, I am ignorant of everything, it is 
the first time I fight; I strike wherever I can, do 
the same." 

" Ah ! d recruit, I am going to give you a 

lesson which you'll remember ! " 

" Monsieur, you are wounded; I have too much 
advantage over you, let us postpone this affair." 

" On guard, scoundrel, on guard I " 

"Here I am!" 

After a few thrusts and parries, the captain re- 
ceived a wound which, beginning at the top of the 
thigh, stopped only at the knee. He was com- 
pelled to cease the combat, but nothing can be 
compared to the anger he felt at having been 
wounded twice by a young man without a mous- 
tache I a greenhorn I a recruit ! 

"I shall have my revenge," he said to him; 
" I'll fix you later; I'll look for you; were you at 
the devil's, and we shall see . . . recruit. If 
coups de manchette will still be In your favour." 

They carried away the captain, who was ill a 



112 AN OFFICER OF 

long time : finally he recovered ; but during the mo- 
ments of fever which he suffered, he was continually 

heard repeating : " A recruit, a d greenhorn ! 

a dirty coup de manchetteH '* 

At Dantzig a captain had just received from 
the quartermaster the arrears of his pay, in the 
neighbourhood of 1,500 francs. He was on his 
way home, but recalling that he was on guard duty, 
and that it was time to report at the barracks, he 
gives the bag of ecus to his lieutenant: " Since you 
are going home," said he to him, " and we are 
neighbours, be kind enough to give this money to 
my wife." 

The lieutenant immediately goes to the lady's 
home, and on entering lays on the table the bag 
of money. He talks, makes himself agreeable, 
and from one thing to another, he makes a declara- 
tion of love. Spurned at first, he does not lose 
courage, he plays the lover well, the passionate 
man; he becomes excited, he throws himself 
at the feet of his captain's wife. No sacrifice 
will be too great to make her listen to his plea. 
He would give his life for a quarter of an hour's 
happiness. " I have just received a year's pay, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 113 

and if you wish these 1,500 francs, they are 
yours." 

Many women would have considered the propo- 
sition very Impertinent: this one judged it differ- 
ently; her husband gave her for the purchase of 
her dresses only what was absolutely necessary, and 
although very pretty, she always found herself 
thrown into the shade at all receptions. The 
demon of coquetry caused her to see in that 1,500 
francs dresses, hats, lace collars and flounces, trifles 
which women love above all things. In turn she 
might now shine; with a few falsehoods and cun- 
ning her husband would suspect nothing. The 
lieutenant took advantage of this moment of hesi- 
tation, he became pressing and the lady surren- 
dered. 

The next day, the captain, on coming off guard, 
meets the young officer, they have a dispute over 
service matters, harsh words are spoken, and each 
returns home. 

On reaching his house, the captain was in an 
angry mood. 

" What's the matter, my dear? " 

"That rascal, he'll hear from me I" 



114 AN OFFICER OF 

" Who? " 

"My lieutenant; I have just put him under 
arrest for two weeks." 

"What for?" 

" You will know it later. Where are the 1,500 
francs ? " 

"What?" says the wife, thunderstruck. 

" Didn't he give you 1,500 francs? " he asked, 
shouting like a madman. 

" What do you mean? " 

" Not another word ! Did he give them to you, 
yes or no?" 

" There they are ! " said the wife falling at the 
knees of her husband. " Mercy, forgive me I he 
took advantage of a moment of weakness . . ." 

" What's that you say? " 

" That he is a wretch to have told you." 

If the captain was angry on entering, imagine 
the fit which followed when he had discovered 
this strange secret In this equally strange manner. 
There was an explanation, the woman confessed 
everything so as to obtain her pardon, having 
already admitted too much to permit of her retract- 
ing. These 1,500 francs asked for by her husband 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 115 

had led her to believe that the lieutenant was a 
babbler. 

" He will die by my hand only," she said. 

" Leave him to me, I am going to punish him, 
and after that we shall settle our score." 

The offended husband rushed to his rival's quar- 
ters; they go on the field, swords are drawn; two 
minutes later the captain was dead. 



A BATTLE DAY 



CHAPTER VII 

A BATTLE DAY 

People, after having read history, generally 
think that a battle is like a review at the Champ 
de Mars, and that one hundred thousand men 
placed opposite one hundred thousand men amuse 
themselves in shooting down each other at their 
ease to the accompaniment of cannon to produce 
the ejffect of the double-bass in an orchestra. I 
am going to explain to them how a battle is fought. 

Our army is on the march preceded by Its ad- 
vance guard, composed of light troops. The 
hussars go like very devils ; they trot, they gallop, 
the enemy flees before them; but soon they stop, 
our hussars stop also. A village defended by a 
few hundred men is In front of us, it Is ordered 
attacked by sharpshooters. At the moment that 
our men enter the gardens, a battalion of the 
enemy appears which makes them lose ground. 
.We send a regiment to support them, the others 

119 



120 AN OFFICER OF 

send two ; we order forward ten, the enemy shows 
us twenty; each side makes the artillery advance, 
the cannon growl, soon everyone takes part In the 
merry-making, fighting goes on, they slaughter one 
another ; one cries for his leg, another for his nose, 
others cry for nothing, and there is food for the 
crows and for the makers of official reports. 

The science of a general-in-chief amounts to this: 
to have on a set day, at a given point, as many men 
as possible. Napoleon said it, and Napoleon was 
a judge. A general must know which point of 
the map will be most seriously disputed. It is 
there that the battle will be fought, it is conse- 
quently there that he must bring all his troops by 
twenty different roads. An order badly given, 
badly understood, often causes the failure of the 
finest strategic combinations, to-wit: Grouchy's 
corps which did not reach Waterloo. The First 
Consul, before leaving Paris, had marked with a 
pin on the map the plain of Marengo for the scene 
of a new triumph; the result justified his prevision. 

The science of a general consists also in knowing 
the strength of the enemy at such a point, his weak- 
ness at such another. To succeed in this, the serv- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 121 

ice of spies is indispensable. Good ones must be 
had and they must be well paid. Napoleon gave 
gold by the handfuls, it was a good investment. 
We have had generals put to rout because they 
haggled on the subject of secret funds. 

When one approaches a battlefield where the 
fighting is on, nothing is so discouraging for the 
young soldiers as the remarks of the wounded who 
are going back. 

" Do not go so fast, do not hurry," they say, 
" to be killed, it is not necessary to run so quickly." 

*' The enemy is ten times more numerous than 
we." 

" They've cut off my leg, they'll cut off some- 
thing else of yours." 

" You look like living corpses." 

" Hello, look at that one, does he not seem 
dead?" 

" He is; yesterday he forgot to get buried; he 
remembers it to-day, etc." 

In vain are they told to be silent; an arm in a 
sling, a gash across the face guarantee impunity, 
give the right of insolence, and the jeremiads con- 
tinue so long as they find someone to listen to them. 



122 AN OFFICER OF 

One of these poor devils was passing before us 
with his head split open and his arm broken. 
Everyone was moved to pity at sight of him. 

" How sad I " the men said : " two wounds I what 
a long road to go to be bandaged! " 

" You are all fools," exclaimed the wounded 
man : " you'll have more than that presently : I 
know my fate, but you do not know yours." 

You should have seen the faces of the recruits 
on hearing these remarks, and specially on seeing 
the first bodies they came across. They went 
twenty feet out of their way for fear of touching 
them, soon they came nearer, later they marched 
over them without ceremony. 

Man becomes accustomed to everything, to 
pleasure and to pain. How often have you expe- 
rienced that a great grief, a great joy, after two 
weeks becomes dull sensation, a very ordinary 
thing? Remember this at your next sorrow, and 
say : " This will pass as other sorrows have passed." 

To prove the truth of my reasoning, I am going 
to tell you a little story. You know that after the 
siege of Toulon, the Republic caused all those who 
at that time were opposed to It to be shot down. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 123 

After the guns had thrown down entire lines, a 
voice called out: " Let all those who are not dead 
rise ! The Republic pardons them ! " A few 
wretched wounded, others whom the grape-shot 
had spared, deluded by this promise, raised their 
heads: at that moment, a squadron of butchers 
(history says a squadron of dragoons; history must 
be mistaken) rushes on them, sword in hand, com- 
pleting what the guns had commenced; soon the 
sun set over this atrocious slaughter. 

On a beautiful night, one of these wretches 
awakes in the middle of this ocean of bodies; he 
Is wounded In ten places, In the head, in the legs. 
In the arms, In the chest, everywhere. He rolls 
over, he drags himself along. 

" Who goes there? " cries the sentry. 

" Finish me." 

"Who are you?" 

" One of those wretches who has been fired on; 
finish me." 

" I am a soldier, I am not an executioner." 

" Finish me, you will do me a service ; you will 
perform an act of humanity." 

" I am not an executioner, I tell you." 



124 AN OFFICER OF 

" Finish me, I beg of you, all my members are 
broken, my head is split open, it is impossible for 
me to recover; you will spare me horrible suffer- 
ing, finish me." 

The sentry drew near, verified the condition of 
the wounded man; believing in the impossibility 
of a cure, compassion determined him ; had he fired 
his gun, the post would have taken up arms, he 
thought it best to use his bayonet, which he thrust 
into the body of the wretched man. Would you 
believe it? this man did not die; the next day, 
while burying all these corpses, a grave-digger saw 
that he was still alive ; he carried him to his home, 
nursed him, and life returned. All the wounds 
were cured. That man was M. de Launoy, a 
naval officer under Louis XVI ; he might well have 
spared himself that last bayonet thrust. 

The surgeon establishes his ambulance at a little 
distance from the battlefield: it Is towards there 
that the wounded are going; after the first aid, 
they go to the rear of the army, and they enter 
the hospitals, until they are able to begin again. 
It is a curious sight, that of an ambulance, all these 
surgeons cutting and paring off, the cries of the 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 125 

wounded, these severed members which fill the 
yard, the wagons taking away those who are ban- 
daged, stretchers bringing newcomers; it is a 
mournful company of human miseries. At the 
battle of Wagram, a grenadier of my regiment is 
wounded by a bullet; his comrade loads him on his 
back and carries him to the surgeon-major; but, on 
the way, another bullet comes and kills the poor 
wounded man without the bearer noticing It. 
The latter continues on his way, reaches the am- 
bulance, and lays the grenadier on the operat- 
ing table. 

"What are you bringing there? He Is dead, 
what do you want me to do to him? " 

" Major, he is wounded." 

" There, look. Imbecile, don't you see he's 
dead?" 

" That's true, see how one is deceived In this 
world even by his best friend. The sly fellow told 
me he was only wounded." 

It must not be believed that In the army every- 
one Is brave ; I have seen some who could never 
become accustomed to the sound of the cannon. 
At Wagram, a soldier of my company had a vio- 



126 AN OFFICER OF 

lent attack of epilepsy which was ended by the 
whizzing of the first shot. 

An officer of my regiment, with thirty years of 
service, had never been on the fighting hne; the 
sight of a sword made him pale, and he confessed 
it frankly. " I should very much like to go on 
the battlefield, but it is not possible, I should fall 
back at the first gunshot, and it would be a very 
bad example." He was usually left behind at the 
garrison where, however, he made himself very 
useful by drilling the recruits. 

If everyone was not brave in the army, there 
were some to be found whose courage was not to 
be compared to anything; and this in all ranks, In 
all degrees, from King Murat to the common 
fusileer, from General Dorsenne to the drummer. 
I could write ten volumes simply on the truly fabu- 
lous acts of bravery of our warriors. I shall men- 
tion but one which the entire third army corps 
witnessed in Spain. 

General Suchet had just taken Mount Ollvo in 
spite of the predictions of the Spaniards. " The 
trenches of Mount Ollvo," they said, " will bury 
all the troops of Suchet, and the trenches of Tar- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 127 

ragone all the troops of Bonaparte." He meets 
a wounded soldier whom his comrades were carry- 
ing to the ambulance: "Victory, victory, Mount 
Olivo is taken ! " 

" Are you gravely wounded? " 

" No, general, but unfortunately wounded seri- 
ously enough to be obliged to leave the ranks." 

" Well answered, friend. What do you wish 
as a reward for your services? " 

" To be allowed to lead the attack when you 
take Tarragone." 

" Better and better." 

" You promise me this?" 

" Yes." 

On the 30th of June, 18 11, that is to say one 
month after, the general-in-chief was about to 
storm the place. The troops were forming their 
columns of attack when a footsoldier in dress uni- 
form, as resplendent as on a parade day, ap- 
proached Suchet. 

" I came to remind you of your promise: I wish 
to lead the attack." 

" Ah! it's you, my brave fellow, very good; but 
soldiers of your kind are too rare that I should be 



128 AN OFFICER OF 

wasteful of their blood. Remain in your com- 
pany; by imparting your noble courage to all, you 
will render greater service than by having your- 
self killed alone." 

" I wish to lead the attack." 

" You shall infallibly be killed, I can not allow 
it." 

" General, I have your word, and I wish to be 
the first to attack." 

'* So much the worse, my brave fellow, so much 
the worse for us, do as you please." 

The columns start and my footsoldier passes 
them by twenty paces; he rushes forward in the 
midst of the grape shot, he is the first to climb the 
breach, and there, falls riddled with bullets. 
Picked up by order of Suchet, this brave soldier was 
carried to the hospital: a breath of life permitted 
him to see on that same day the entire corps of 
officers, with the general at their head, who came to 
visit him. Suchet took off his cross to decorate 
the breast of the footsoldier who died admired by 
the whole army. 

That hero's name was Bianchelli. Chateau- 
briand has said : " Glory must be something very 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 129 

real, since it causes the heart of the one who is 
only its witness to beat." 

I am going to cite an act of courage of another 
kind. 

During the civil wars in Vendee, a republican 
soldier was taken prisoner of war, and condemned 
to death together with all his comrades. They 
were taken to the field to be shot, when one of 
the Vendean chiefs, admiring the fine bearing of 
the grenadier, asked his pardon from the general- 
in-chief. 

" No pardon," he replied, " they had none for 
our men in the Republican army." 

" Never mind, you will be generous, you will 
save a hero; he is a Frenchman, he will be one 
more support for our cause, and for you a devoted 
friend who will owe his life to you." 

" At this price, I consent, if he is willing to 
march with us and shout : ' Five le roil ' " 

" Leave it to me. Grenadier, come here, I have 
asked your pardon from the general, he has granted 
it if you shout : ' Five le roil ' " 

" Five la Republiquef " replied the soldier. 

" Let him be shot ! " 



130 AN OFFICER OF 

The grenadier returns proudly back to his com- 
rades, several were already dead. He stands with 
his arms folded across his breast, his head high, 
facing the muskets, when the Vendean chief throws 
himself at the general's feet. 

" I have always served with honour, you know 
it; as a reward for the blood I have shed, I ask 
for the pardon of the grenadier without conditions; 
do you refuse it? " 

" So be it, I grant it." 

" Come forward, grenadier, the general grants 
you your life, and I trust that you will not make 
use of it against us." 

" Is It unconditionally? " 

" Unconditionally." 

" Well then, vive le rot! " 

The name of this hero Is not known, I knew It 
once. . . .1 am ashamed to confess it . . . 
I have forgotten It. Had he lived In ancient 
Greece or Rome, the sculptors would not have 
failed to make him Immortal. 

" I defy anyone to frighten me I " said a long- 
sworded hero, with the tufted moustaches of the 
King of clubs. " That's what we'll see I " replied 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 131 

some friends. A wager Is made, a large sum is 
deposited; the winner Is to get It. A date is set 
after which, If the hero has not said: "I am 
afraid," he will have won the wager. 

The bettors take every precaution. By means 
of secret Intelligence, they render themselves mas- 
ters of the doors, enter the room in which their 
man sleeps ; they take the bullets out of his pistols 
and saw Into four quarters the blade of his sword. 

On a beautiful night, they all enter his room. 
He awakens with a start, and sees a dozen strolling 
corpses covered with shrouds, they carry a bier and 
chant unintelligible words. They set down the 
coffin, surround It with wax-tapers, making signs 
to the hero to come and take his place In It. The 
latter loudly bursts into laughter, and the chanting 
continues. 

After a half hour thus passed without any sort 
of variation, the bettor, magnetised by the monoto- 
nous chant, the burning candles, the open bier, was 
beginning to feel uncomfortable. 

" Gentlemen," said he, " this is quite enough, I 
think; I wish to sleep, withdraw." 

The chanting still continues. 



132 AN OFFICER OF 

" This is beginning to annoy me, and if you do 
not go at once, I shall take other means." 

The chanting still continues. 

Our man draws his sword, attempts to strike 
one of the phantoms with it ; it breaks. 

The chanting still continues. 

Furious, he takes his pistols, threatens to fire; 
no answer Is given, only the chant, he fires and 
two of the phantoms hand him back his bullets 
while chanting. 

" Gentlemen," he says, " it's all over, I am 
afraid ! I have lost my wager, speak to me, hurry, 
it is time ! " 

The chanting still continues. 

The hero falls at full length : he was dead. 

I shall not play the blusterer here, the capitan 
Matamore, by saying that I have never been afraid, 
a thing that I have heard others say time and 
again. I declare, on the contrary, that the first 
time that a cannon ball whizzed over my head, I 
bowed to it by an involuntary movement ; with the 
second I was less polite ; I stood firm at the third ; 
but every time I reached the firing line, I confess 




MURAT. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 133 

that the same form of politeness was always pre- 
cisely followed. 

When one manoeuvres, when one is firing, when 
one is actively fighting, these feelings disappear, 
the smoke, the roar of the cannon, the shouts of 
the combatants intoxicate everybody, one has no 
time to think of self. But when one has to remain 
still in his line without firing, and receive a hail of 
cannon balls, it is not at all comfortable. 

There are some men, however, who, endowed 
with extraordinary strength of spirit, see the great- 
est danger with calmness. Murat, the bravest of 
the brave, always charged at the head of his cav- 
alry, and never returned without having his sword 
dyed with blood. That is easily understood; but 
a thing which I have seen done by General Dor- 
senne,^^ and which I have seen done by him only, 
was to stand still, with his back on the enemy, 
facing his shot riddled regiment, and saying: 
*' Close ranks!" without looking behind him a 
single time. On other occasions, I have tried to 
imitate him, tried to turn my back; I was unable 
to remain in that position, curiosity always com- 



134 AN OFFICER OF 

pelled me to look at the place from which the shots 
came. 

An entire army can not march on the same road, 
with its artillery and Its wagons; the head would 
have reached Strasburg while the tall would still 
be on the Place du Carrousel; and then that army 
must be fed; all together, it could not find food, 
the more so as the big fellows who compose it 
usually have an astounding appetite. When one 
sees the separate divisions approach, when the de- 
tached generals make a junction with the principal 
corps, it is easy to predict a battle. Of all those 
that have been fought In our time, the battle of 
Wagram was the longest expected; the field was 
known, each had studied It. On both sides, for 
forty days, all the dispositions of attack and de- 
fence were studied at leisure. 

In the evening after the victory, we were weak 
with hunger and specially with thirst; soldiers 
enter a house, and find there some Austrians drink- 
ing, half tipsy, and making no hostile demonstra- 
tion. They drink with them and everything is 
as pleasant as can be. Two officers of my regi- 
ment appear: 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 135 

"What are you doing here?" they say to the 
French soldiers; "why are these Austrians not 
prisoners? Break their weapons and take these 
men to general headquarters." 

"Hello I . . . what's the matter with 
monsieur I'officler? He wants us to throw these 
good friends in prison, these kind people who have 
given us to drink, these excellent Austrians who 
wish us no harm! " 

"I order it." 

" Listen; if you don't get out of here at once, 
we'll show you what we think of your orders." 

And immediately my drunken fellows aim at 
their officers and fire. It was necessary to send a 
company of grenadiers to bring them to reason; 
several were killed and wounded in the fray. 

The whole French army was intoxicated on the 
night of the battle of Wagram; It slept in the 
vineyards, and, in Austria, the wine-cellars are lo- 
cated in the middle of the field where the vine is 
grown. It was good, very abundant, the soldiers 
drank beyond measure, and if ten thousand Aus- 
trians, knowing that we were somno vinoque 
sepulti, had attacked us during the night, we should 



136 AN OFFICER OF 

have been totally routed. It would have been 
wholly impossible to make one-tenth of the sol- 
diers take up arms. On what does the destiny of 
empires depend! All might have been changed 
that day; the fifth act of the great drama which 
had been playing for so long a time in Europe 
might have had a cellar for an ending. Men of 
genius, make your calculations then; it needs but 
very little to make them fail. It is probable that 
the Austrians were in a similar condition, because 
if we had drunk to celebrate our victory, they 
had no doubt done the same to forget their de- 
feat. During a campaign, the great difficulty con- 
sists in knowing the state in which the enemy is: 
the general who could know this would always be 
victorious. 

The battle of Wagram had no great material 
result: that is to say that there were no great 
hauls as there were at Ulm, at Jena and Ratisbon; 
there were hardly any prisoners; we took nine 
pieces of cannon from the Austrians, and we lost 
fourteen. When this was reported to the Em- 
peror, he replied with great calmness: "Nine 
from fourteen leaves five." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 137 

Ordinarily, after a battle, an order of the day 
informed us of what we had done; for, like M. 
Jourdain, we made history without knowing it. 
In his proclamations to the army which Napoleon 
himself wrote, and the style of which was perfect, 
he informed us that he was pleased with us, that 
we had surpassed his expectations, that we had 
rushed on with the rapidity of the eagle, then he 
gave us the details of how we had conducted our- 
selves: the number of soldiers, of cannons, of 
wagons we had taken; it was exaggerated, but it 
was high-sounding and very effective. After 
Wagram we did not have the slightest proclama- 
tion, not the smallest order of the day; for more 
than three weeks we were ignorant of the name 
which that famous day would have in history; 
among ourselves we called it the battle of the 5th 
and 6th of July: we only heard of the name of 
Wagram through the Paris papers. 

It is not sufficient that a general have talent, 
he must besides be lucky; in war circumstances 
combine in such a fashion that something unfore- 
seen always presents itself. When the services of 
a new man were proposed to Cardinal Richelieu, 



138 AN OFFICER OF 

the shrewd old man always asked if the applicant 
was lucky; and if the answer was in the affirmative, 
the place was granted. Napoleon believed in his 
destiny, although he possessed astounding genius; 
it was modesty. How many occasions are there 
in his life when chance, the blunders of his enemies, 
favoured him ! 

We were in camp, near Ratzeburg, in Holstein; 
the enemy was at two leagues from us; there was 
no fighting, or at least but very little, just enough 
to show from time to time that we were around. 
Each general knew very well that he was not to 
decide the question: all depended on what should 
take place in the Grand Army which was then at 
Leipsic. 

One day, Marechal Davout decided to order a 
general reconnoitring to compel the enemy to 
take up arms, count them and know the number 
of men we had opposite us. A formidable column 
started off one fine morning, and two hours after 
we were opposite the Russian, Prussian and Swed- 
ish camp ; for it was composed of all these nations. 
The camp appeared to us to be uninhabited; fear- 
ing an ambuscade, we advance with precaution; 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 139 

scouts are sent forward ; they enter all the barracks, 
and see no one. What has become of the enemy? 
While awaiting for the reply to the question, the 
order is given to set fire. The camp burns ; in an 
Instant all these straw roofs become piles of ashes. 

While we were gazing at this immense bonfire, 
and each was making his own conjectures as to 
the disappearance of the enemy, the cannon thun- 
ders behind us ; the noise Increases, and everything 
leads us to believe that our camp Is attacked. 
" We are cut off," say the soldiers: " the Russians 
have had knowledge of our movements, they have 
allowed us to advance; they are taking our camp, 
and then they will easily get the better of us." 

French soldiers are easily demoralised: four 
hussars behind them worry them more than a thou- 
sand In front. " We are cut off," they continued 
to repeat, " in this case." It took many words to 
prove to them that If someone was cut off. It could 
only be the four hussars. 

" Captain, I have a prisoner," exclaimed a re- 
cruit In a skirmish. 

"Well, bring him here!" 

" He will not walk." 



I40 AN OFFICER OF 

" Draw your sword." 

" He has taken it from me." 

But in the plight in which we were, the soldiers 
seemed to be telling the truth, their fear appeared 
well founded. The Russians, informed of our 
movements, had allowed us to pass; they were 
taking advantage of our absence to crush our com- 
rades. All hesitation was impossible, we must fly 
to their aid, it was specially necessary to take cer- 
tain heights from which three hundred men would 
suffice to prevent our communicating with our fel- 
low soldiers. 

.We start off, we arrive almost on the run at 
the narrow pass of Gros-Mulsahn and meet no 
one. 

Then we began to see clearly, the enemy must 
necessarily be unaware of our march, since he had 
not taken possession of so fine a position. For 
the same reason that we did not know his move- 
ments an hour before, he probably did not know 
ours. These conjectures turned to certainty, when, 
having reached our camp, we saw it attacked on 
all sides. 

Chance was the cause that the two generals op- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 141 

posing each other had had the same idea on the 
same day, at the same hour; they had decided to 
attack one another and had taken a different 
route. 

The Emperor liked to bestow the ranks and 
decorations. After a battle, he held reviews, dis- 
tributing ribbons and epaulets; each man hoped 
for something, but following an affair wherein two 
or three hundred men were engaged, no matter 
what the outcome might be, hope was not even 
permitted to the petty officers or soldiers. The 
chief was careful to draw up a superb report inter- 
spersed with glory, daring, able manceuvres, and 
If any reward came later, it was always for him. 

I am going to give an idea of the manner in 
which history was then written. During the cam- 
paign of 1 8 13, we had an outpost affair at Sprottau, 
a small city of Saxony; the Russian rear-guard de- 
fended itself an instant, there were on all sides 
three or four companies engaged. In brief, the 
enemy withdrew, leaving in our hands some pris- 
oners and a few baggage wagons. An hour after, 
we were strolling on the public square talking of 
our prowess of the morning. 



142 AN OFFICER OF 

" There Is food for the makers of bulletins," 
said an officer. " You will later see that we have 
done superb, magnificent things ! " 

" I do not know," said another, " whether we 
have done much, but I answer for It that they 
will not fall to say so." 

" It win be reported that the general has gath- 
ered laurels by the armful, but our regiment will 
not be named." 

" Well, we'll have a line, and he a page." 

" We'll have nothing at all." 

" Nothing at all will be said of the affair, It Is 
really not worth while." 

" You'll see, when the Paris papers come. But 
the better to judge, let us write down on the spot, 
so as not to forget them, the brilliant results of 
the day. Here are the prisoners: let us count 
them; good! there are sixty- four, plus three bag- 
gage-wagons with twelve horses; plus a cannon 
and a caisson." 

Two weeks after, the papers arrive. Mercy! 
what wonders we had done! when I say we, I 

mean General S . With unbelievable daring, 

with learned tactics, he had surrounded, attacked, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 143 

overthrown, taken, killed. Three hundred dead, 
a thousand wounded, two thousand prisoners, ten 
pieces of cannon, sixty baggage wagons, were the 
glorious results of his strategic science and noble 
courage. He had done all that alone; our regi- 
ment was not even mentioned. 

In fact. If the general had said that with such 
a regiment, he had done such fine things, everyone 
would have considered It quite natural, and the 
honour would have been shared; but In writing that 
" giving way to his natural Impetuosity, with a 
small part of his advance guard, he had over- 
thrown the enemy, who necessarily owed their 
salvation only to the quickness of their legs," the 
glory Is his alone. This advance guard Is an ideal, 
fantastic being. Impossible to personify. It may 
perhaps be four men, and as the general has done 
all with so small a number, he must be a formida- 
ble fellow. Ah! if I dared, how many similar 
heroes I might mention ! 

The sic vos non vobis of Virgil daily received 
its application to the army. For everything, 
savoir faire is necessary to succeed. At the battle 
of Eylau, a recruit brings to his captain a Russian 



144 AN OFFICER OF 

flag which he had found In the snow in the midst 
of twenty bodies. 

"Imbecile, you take that for a flag? It is a 
company guidon of no importance; every day I 
find such things, and I don't stoop to pick them 
up." 

A quarter of an hour after, the captain was 
addressing the marechal. 

" Here Is a flag," he was saying, " which I've 
taken from the Russians, four men were defending 
It ; they are all dead. . . ." The captain was 
chief of battalion the next day. 

The word advancement lodges Itself In a mili- 
tary brain at the moment of entering service; It 
does not come out until the day of retirement. It 
Is about the same as the word husband In the mind 
of a young girl; she thinks of it every day. " We 
arc going to the ball this evening, I shall perhaps 
find a husband there ! " says the maid. " We are 
starting on a campaign, there may be advance- 
ment," says the soldier. This Idea engrosses the 
whole army, from the drummer to the marshal. 
When we were dictatmg laws to Europe, the gen- 
erals nightly dreamed that deputies from a neigh- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 145 

bouring kingdom came to offer them a gold crown 
on a velvet cushion. 

The example of Bernadotte turned all heads. 
" Such a marshal Is going to be promoted King, 
such a grenadier is to be promoted corporal." 
This form of expression was very natural; we all 
thought we had a sceptre in the scabbard of our 
sword. A soldier had become king, each thought 
he might become one also. 

Much is said to-day of military advancement 
under the Empire, and specially of the soldiers' 
gratitude towards the Emperor. The word grati- 
tude Is very amusing; is not this a strange misuse 
of words? Candidly, had we to be so thankful 
to his Imperial and Royal Majesty when he was 
gracious enough to give the places of the dead to 
those who remained? We yearly drew lots as to 
who should take his neighbour's place. And very 
often, he who won could not lay his hands on the 
stake. After each battle, a swarm of officers sent 
from Paris pounced upon our regiments to take 
possession of the best vacant places. The new 
nobility was as greedy as the ancient; all possible 
nobilities are the same. Had the Empire lasted 



146 AN OFFICER OF 

ten more years, it would have been considered re- 
markable if a plebeian had been named colonel. 
The name of officer of fortune was beginning to 
return to favour, and we were on the verge of see- 
ing the greatest plebeian ambitions age in the ob- 
scure honours of a major's rank. The sons of 
marshals, generals, counts and barons, councillors 
of state and prefects, took on a new rank every 
two weeks ; It was by rewarding them in the army 
for what they had not done that their fathers were 
encouraged. 

Not that Messieurs the marshals and generals 
were lacking in courage : they have proven the con- 
trary on a thousand occasions; but the profession 
was beginning to bore. When one possesses a 
handsome residence in Paris, and a fine chateau In 
the suburbs. It Is not agreeable to waste one's life 
In the smoke of a bivouac. Ten years, twenty 
years, that's long enough, but for ever ! 

Who was named at each battle? ten people 
out of three hundred thousand, and yet every 
one did his duty, but every one could not be 
named. 

I daily hear people repeating that one went to 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 147 

the army to serve the country, to serve the Em- 
peror. 

Men went there, go there, will go there so long 
as armies exist; some by force, others to have 
advancement. 

Advancement Is the country, the Emperor, the 
King. 

Men went to the army because they knew that 
some, from common soldier, had become generals, 
marshals, princes, kings. " Why should I not do 
as they? " said every soldier as he put on his knap- 
sack. 

We each have a brevet of marechal of France 
in our cartridge-box, it is only a question of get- 
ting it out. 

" My neighbour has won a quaternary in the 
lottery, why should I not win one also? " That 
is the reasoning of all cooks; how many ten cent 
pieces have been lost in the hope of reaching that 
goal and without ever reaching it . . . 

When we received a new rank, we were very 
glad; the next day we thought no more of it, our 
ideas were turned towards the day when we might 
receive another. 



148 AN OFFICER OF 

Man is thus made and will not change, he runs 
after a shadow which constantly flees before him. 
His life is short, and he always wishes to be older 
in the hope of possessing gains of which he will 
soon tire. " I congratulate you," I was one day 
saying to a captain who had just been promoted 
chief of battalion. " Now I want the officer's 
cross," he Immediately replied, " that completes a 
position." To complete his position, each paid 
court to his chief, because it was on that chief that 
his lot always depended. It was he who proposed 
the candidates to the Emperor or to the minister; 
one had therefore to be in his good graces, under 
pain of remaining In a disgraceful statu quo. 
From the corporal to the marechal of the Empire, 
everyone courted the one who held the list of 
bounties. All the low bows which It was neces- 
sary to make had little by little changed the char- 
acter of our army. The greed for baronies and 
of endowments had given our old officers, formerly 
republicans, all the habits of the courtiers of Ver- 
sailles, and often in the most humble barrack, 
scenes worthy of the CEil-de-Bceuf have taken place. 

After a battle, the Emperor granted a certain 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 149 

number of crosses of the Legion of Honor to each 
regiment: eight, ten, twelve for the officers, and 
as many for the non-commissioned officers and sol- 
diers; the colonel named the lucky ones. After 
Friedland, the number was eight In one regiment 
of the army, but among the officers newly deco- 
rated, there were but seven. " Who Is the 
eighth? " was asked. Three months later, they 
knew; a relative of the colonel, arriving from 
France, had received the cross on the road, and on 
putting on his uniform for the first time, he had 
found it ornamented with the red ribbon. Truly, 
there was some little complaining, but in such low 
tones, that the colonel could not hear It. These 
gentlemen were great powers which one should 
not have as enemies. The fools alone spoke their 
minds freely, and I was always among the fools. 



THE CAMP 



CHAPTER yill 

THE CAMP 

In the days of Louis XIV and Louis XV, a 
camp was often but a theatrical performance given 
in honour of the ladies of the Court, tired of the 
pleasures of Versailles. The officers, the majority 
of them, only troubled themselves under the tent 
with gossip and love letters ; they left the details of 
the service to the majors and to the self-made 
officers. The business of the colonels and gen- 
erals was to arrive at the camp with fine equipages, 
numerous servants, a good cook, and to keep open 
table. Some ruined themselves at the camp, but 
they made themselves noticed. When it was 
necessary to risk their lives, these gentlemen did 
not spare themselves; they fought like brave men 
exactly as we have done and as we shall do when 
the occasion presents itself; but they had of the 
military profession only the roses without thorns, 

153 



154 AN OFFICER OF 

for I do hot call thorns the cannon shots and the 
drolleries of that sort. 

The camp for them was a diversion, a means 
of putting themselves In evidence; each had the 
hope of being noticed by the King, by his mis- 
tresses; a word could be said in the King's select 
circle, and that word was worth a regiment. It is 
something prodigious, the amount spent then in a 
three months' camp. Marechal de Boufflers, at 
the camp of Compiegne, In 1698, wasted or caused 
millions to be wasted; he had messengers who, 
each day, brought wines from all countries, the 
best game, the finest fish; he had the honour of 
dining Louis XIV and the King of England; that 
honour cost him dearly. In the poetical life of 
Versailles, men did not reckon, affairs we kept 
going. *' See my steward," said a grand lord, 
" arrange with him; my duty Is to spend, the rest 
concerns him." 

In those times, when one was tired of a month's 
campaign, a truce was agreed upon between the 
outposts, and each took his quarters without the 
minister being notified. " When It rains, stay 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 155 

away, we shall not budge; It is most disagreeable 
to get muddy." 

To-day, when an army is on a campaign, it 
sleeps at the bivouac ; it is only made to camp dur- 
ing the armistices or when peace is signed. In 
the cantonments, the troops are too scattered, it 
takes too long to assemble them, the soldiers can 
not be watched sufficiently; discipline suffers from 
it. In a garrison, it is seldom that enough regi- 
ments can be assembled to have grand manoeuvres, 
while at a camp anything may be included, there 
is always some space. 

A camp is a city of wood and straw, sometimes 
of canvas carefully built on lines, with its streets 
large and small, long and short; the whole is kept 
excessively clean. A camp is a mighty fine thing, 
but I maintain that a stay in a city is infinitely 
preferable. 

In general, to build our camps, we demolish 
villages; at Tilsit, each regiment had some thirty 
to cut up ; one or two were assigned to each com- 
pany. We had a great quantity of carriages and 
found horses which served to transport the ma- 



156 AN OFFICER OF 

terials. With such resources, it is easy to believe 
that our camps were superb; those who have not 
seen them can not imagine what they were. 
When the barracks had been made of uniform di- 
mensions, each busied himself decorating his own 
in an elegant manner, and soon the order came to 
take model for certain things from such a com- 
pany, from such a regiment. The soldiers, piqued 
at being obliged to begin again, invented new 
decorations to make the innovators work in their 
turn. There was no existing reason why this 
should ever end. It may be said that a camp is 
never finished: as long as an army stays there, 
there is work to do. 

The two Emperors and the King of Prussia 
came to visit our camp, and we performed grand 
manoeuvres in their presence. ^^ General Mouton 
(since comte de Lobau), aide de camp to Na- 
poleon, commanded in chief. We filed before the 
three sovereigns and before an army of princes, 
marshals, and generals of three nations. I do not 
believe that there has ever been brought together 
in any part of the globe so large a quantity of 
embroidered clothes. Napoleon commanded that 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 157 

multitude in his plain uniform of mounted chas- 
seur; Alexander and Frederick-William galloped 
behind him, not permitting their horses to take the 
same step as his. Later, they made Napoleon pay 
dearly for the glory with which he overwhelmed 
them at Tilsit. 

In passing In front of our barracks, the King of 
Prussia stopped to talk with us; the letter-box of 
the regiment, which on campaign Is placed near 
the flag, astonished him greatly. 

"Of what use Is that box?" asked Frederick 
William. 

" Sire, to receive the letters which each one of 
us writes to France." 

" During a campaign. Is your mail so organised 
that it can take care of the letters of all the sol- 
diers?" 

" Yes, sire. It leaves every day, every day It 
arrives, and we receive the Paris papers In two 
weeks." 

" It Is admirable ! Certainly, gentlemen. It Is 
Impossible to make finer camps than yours, but 
you must admit that you make ugly villages." 

The Queen of Prussia came to Tilsit. Na- 



158 AN OFFICER OF 

poleon was very attentive to her. It was a singu- 
lar sight for a spectator, all these assembled sov- 
ereigns, going out together every day, eating at 
the same table, in short looking like old friends, 
they who a few days before, tore each other to 
pieces in their official gazettes, weapons more dan- 
gerous for kings than the cannon. Besides, this 
recent friendship seemed sincere between Alex- 
ander and Napoleon, and if there are circum- 
stances in politics when one may trust appearances, 
it is probable that at Tilsit they acted In good 
faith. The Queen of Prussia was very beautiful, 
I saw her; she was said to have been very amiable, 
I know nothing about that; but it is certain that 
she obtained many concessions from Napoleon. 
This pretty Queen dining one day with the three 
sovereigns, filled a glass of champagne, and said 
with that infinite grace which she possessed to a 
supreme degree, a grace which at this moment 
came to the aid of politics at bay: "To the 
health of Napoleon the Great! he has taken our 
states and he returns them to us ! " The Em- 
peror arose, returned the bow with courtesy, and 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 159 

replied to the Queen: "Do not drink all, 
Madame." 

After the armistice which followed the battle 
of Znai'm, the whole army camped until peace was 
restored. We were in the neighbourhood of 
Briinn and Austerlitz, on the former battlefield. 
Napoleon wished to give himself a second repre- 
sentation of the battle of Austerlitz; on a beautiful 
day in September, the whole army occupied the 
same position, the same manoeuvres took place as 
four years before. Everything passed pleasantly, 
the regiments which represented the Russian and 
Austrian corps allowed themselves to be van- 
quished as agreed in advance, and no one was 
drowned in the famous lake of Sokolnltz which 
was not frozen. 

Louis XV liked to give the ladles of the Court 
representations of battles; one day he wished to 
have a make believe siege. The memoirs of the 
time speak very seriously of the courage shown by 
the besiegers and besieged, all inspired by the 
King's presence. The place was stormed, the 
mines exploded, cardboard heads, arms and legs 



i6o AN OFFICER OF 

were seen flying in the air ; it would have been dif- 
ficult to carry imitation further. Nevertheless 
they did not stop there. The besieged were 
obliged to sign a capitulation which, having come 
down to us, proves how much these gentlemen 
liked to seriously busy themselves with trifles or 
else play soldiers.^''^ 

The most favourable spot for the location of 
a camp is always the neighbourhood of a beautiful 
chateau which is used as general headquarters; as 
soon as the staff is installed, all is as well as can 
be. 

An encamped regiment must occupy the same 
place as when under arms. Usually each com- 
pany has six barracks standing in three rows. 
Opposite the centre of these barracks and towards 
the rear are the kitchens. Farther are to be 
found the barrack of the captain and that of the 
lieutenants ; farther still that of the chief of battal- 
ion, and behind all these is that of the colonel, 
placed facing the centre of the regiment. 

The colonel's barrack exists, but usually it is 
not occupied; these gentlemen prefer to lodge at 
the nearest village, of course this is when we are 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY i6i 

far from the enemy, or when peace is made; for, 
in times of war they are with the soldiers night 
and day. 

In camp, the officers eat, either at the canteen- 
woman's, who keeps the restaurant with a dining- 
room holding one hundred, or in their own quar- 
ters, several eating together. In every company 
there is always to be found a soldier who can cook 
fairly well. And then, on occasion, everyone 
helps, and the result is often a delicious dinner. 

During a campaign, the officers are entitled to 
the distributions of supplies; they receive their 
rations of bread, meat, salt, rice, etc. When 
eight or ten get together, and know how to agree, 
they live very nicely, provided a few supplemen- 
tary provisions can be found at the near by 
town. 

In camp, the day is spent in visiting the bar- 
racks, in inspections, parades, drills, manoeuvres, 
a life certainly most agreeable for those who like 
it. When one has books, one reads in one's 
leisure moments; when one has none, one walks, 
and then in the evening one plays, one drinks hot 
wine in the midst of the smoke of pipes. This 



i62 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY, 

takes place under the canteen-woman's tent or in 
the barrack of each officer in turn. 

If the officers play for money, the soldiers play 
fillips, nothing is more comical than to see an old 
veteran receiving fillips on his nose. Sometimes 
they are administered by a young recruit, which 
does not prevent the old soldier from bearing them 
without complaint, but not without making a very 
amusing grimace. And then, to vary the amuse- 
ments, drogue is played; the loser having to wear 
on his nose a pair of wooden pincers which squeeze 
his nostrils. You have often noticed these little 
scenes when passing near a guard-house, or else in 
looking over a collection of prints. 



THE CANTONMENTS 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CANTONMENTS 

The cantonments are the thing which the sol- 
diers like best. The bivouac finally bores one : 
It rains, it is cold there ; camp life is too hard, there 
is too much work to do: one must be at one time 
a mason, roofer and carpenter. At the garrison, 
the service Is hard: there is too much guard duty, 
drill periodically returns each day with its weari- 
some monotony. 

In the cantonments, all that does not exist, there 
Is nothing to do or very little. The companies, 
scattered In several villages, do not often assemble ; 
each soldier finds at his host's food and shelter; 
he walks around with his stick in his hand, plays 
the wit with the men, the sentimental with the 
ladles, and sometimes everybody is satisfied. 

In the cantonments, military service left us long 
hours of leisure, and we hunted. Master of the 
country, the game belonged to us by right of con- 
ies 



i66 AN OFFICER OF 

quest. If this manner of spending our time was 
disagreeable to the barons and grand lords, who 
owned the forests where we hunted, It was very 
pleasing to the plebeian citizens at whose homes 
we were lodged. First because In bringing to 
their kitchens the contents of our game-bags, they 
found In It a useful compensation for the expenses 
Incurred for us; and then they were not sorry to 
see their lords and masters, so jealous of their hunt- 
ing rights, annoyed in their turn, after having so 
often vexed the others. 

When we were not hunting, we called on each 
other, and for this important occasion, the burgo- 
master was commanded to put In requisition a 
carriage or else a sleigh. Our trips were so often 
repeated that the horses were constantly occupied 
In serving our caprices. These perpetual visits In- 
terfered with agriculture, commerce was suspended, 
the markets were short of supplies, famine was 
impending; an order of the day forbade under the 
most severe penalty to place any carriage In requi- 
sition. 

I pretended to have no knowledge of It, and 
every time I had a mind to change air, without 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 167 

the slightest hesitation, I ordered harnessed the 
carriage of the burgomaster at whose house I 
lodged. My man complained, and my arrest fol- 
lowed. The honourable body of sub-lieutenants 
sided with me ; I received num^erous visits from the 
most distant points of our cantonments. At these 
secret meetings, we meditated a striking vengeance 
against the informing burgomaster, and this is the 
one adopted. 

During a fine night, I say fine, because it was 
pouring, we took apart the carriage, the Innocent 
cause of my arrest; and at the risk of breaking our 
necks, we had the patience to hoist it piece by 
piece over the roof. When we had everything up 
there, we put it together again and placed it be- 
tween two chimneys; it was ready to start, it only 
needed horses. 

At break of day, the. burgomaster having to go 
on a trip, wants to harness, but he finds no car- 
riage; he shouts and complains that he has been 
robbed. People run In all directions; they seek, 
but do not find. Finally, a child perceived the 
carriage In the singular coach-house where we had 
placed it. Imagine, If you can, the anger of the 



i68 AN OFFICER OF 

poor man; It was enough to make one die of 
laughter; he swore loudly and vigorously enough 
to make his house fall. By their jests, our soldiers 
Increased his anger the more. One said that thus 
located, the carriage was safe from thieves; an- 
other, that by taking the horses on the roof. It 
could soon be got down, etc. Finally the entire 
village assembled, everyone set to work. It took 
them three days to undo what we had done in a 
single night. 

If there existed good cantonments, some very 
bad ones were at times found. When the coun- 
try, devastated by the two armies, offered no re- 
sources, genius was required to secure the dally 
sustenance. For example. In the direction of 
Osterode, after the battle of Eylau, those rascals 
of peasants, to use the soldiers' expressions, hid 
their provisions under the ground and In the 
woods. But no matter what they did, each day 
a new hiding place was discovered. 

Our old foxes walked about, ramrod In hand, 
sounding the freshly turned earth; the result of 
these excursions was put In the stores of each com- 
pany to be distributed equally to all. The art of 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 169 

feeding an army during a campaign has never 
been known among us, at least It has never been 
put Into practice. We had a swarm of employees 
with large and small staffs; these gentlemen were 
busy making their fortunes, they have succeeded 
by the grace of God. Their principal care was to 
provide for the Imperial guard, and the rest made 
shift as best It could. When the picked troops 
had received supplies for four days, It was said In 
the Emperor's salons that the army was well sup- 
plied; the papers repeated, amplified, paraphrased, 
and everything was as fine as could be In the best 
world possible. 

One day soldiers found In a hiding place some 
sacks of oats; It was a piece of good luck, for our 
horses only lived on rank straw taken from the 
roofs. The oflicers of the regiment cantoned In 
the neighbouring villages, having heard this news, 
came to visit us so as to have the opportunity of 
treating their horses to a peck of oats. Each day 
the same thing was repeated, the supply was dimin- 
ishing perceptibly. Laborle bethought himself of 
a rather good expedient to remedy this. He In- 
structed the soldier whose duty It was to put the 



170 AN OFFICER OF 

horses in the stable, never to give them oats when- 
ever he said to him : " Give the horse oats, do 
you hear? " and to put some in the trough when 
he simply said: " Give the horse oats." So that, 
barring a few exceptions, when an officer said to 
us on alighting: 

" Will you see that my horse gets oats? " 

" Certainly," replied Laborie. Then turning 
towards the soldier : 

" Give the horse oats, do you hear? " 

" Yes, lieutenant." 

The officer went away again. A few digs of 
the spurs produced the same effect as the oats. 
Later, I told this anecdote, people laughed much 
over It: the expression ''Do you hear?" even be- 
came a saying : for when we had had a good lunch, 
we did not fail to say: it was without do you hear? 

We often went fishing in a pond near Peters- 
wald, for to live, we had to make use of all possi- 
ble resources. One day, when, pole in hand, we 
were fixedly looking on the cork floating on the 
surface of the water, one of our comrades who was 
also fishing, noticed that his hook was caught by 
some fagots which he saw at the bottom of the 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 171 

pond; with a stick he tries to move the obstacle, 
at once a body comes to the surface. Great 
astonishment on our part; we continue, other 
bodies appear; in short we counted thirty-eight, 
among them that of a woman. They were 
naked and all appeared to have been killed by 
blows of an axe. 

Notice was at once sent to the colonel, to the 
general, to the marshal; the village was sur- 
rounded, all the inhabitants cast in prison. An 
investigation was begun; search was made every- 
where, uniforms and weapons were discovered, 
and it was proven that a French detachment which 
was thought to have been taken prisoner of war, 
had perished in that village, on the same night, 
the same hour, and had been a victim of a new 
Sicilian Vespers. Thirty-eight inhabitants were 
shot, and the village totally destroyed by fire. 

What renders military life very agreeable, is 
that situations vary continually; when one finds 
himself in an unpleasant position, one is easily con- 
soled, soon that will change. One day, in the 
mud to the knees, lacking food and straw on which 
to sleep; the next day, in an excellent chateau 



172 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

stocked with pretty ladles, and possessed of a 
kitchen supplied with all necessary things and cel- 
lars filled to the vaults. 

All these things combined are an agreeable di- 
version, but they must be combined: sine Baccho 
et Cerere friget Venus, which may be translated 
that It Is difficult to talk sweet nonsense to the 
ladies when one has not dined. 



THE GARRISON 



CHAPTER X 

THE GARRISON 

The priest must read his breviary every day, 
the drill is for the ofScer what the breviary is for 
the priest. It is a very amusing thing, this drill; 
after having gone through It for thirty years, one 
must continue it, unless one retires. When one 
does not know it, one must learn it, it Is quite 
natural; when one knows it, one must teach it to 
others ; It is just ; when all the regiment manoeuvres 
well. It must be repeated once more to show that 
one knows It, So that one is always drilling. 
An officer Is always returning from drill or else 
going to It. If his sergeant-major meets him, he 
is certain to hear these sacramental words: 
" Lieutenant, or captain, we shall have the drill 
at such an hour to-day. If the weather permits." 

Captain G , of the Imperial guard, had to 

go through the drill. I have seen him sick, 
In bed, command the manual of arms to the pun- 

175 



176 AN OFFICER OF 

ished men whom he caused to be taken out of the 
guard-room. One day the hour strikes, no men 
appear, he sends for his sergeant-major: 

" Well ! " he says to him, " how about my pun- 
ished squad? " 

" Captain, the guard-room is empty, we have 
no men under arrest." 

" That concerns you, arrest some." 

In cold weather of lo degrees he ordered those 
poor devils to shoulder arms in the yard, and woe 
to him who made the slightest movement. Some- 
times, frozen to the very bones, they fell in a 
faint on the pavement. 

" Is the musket broken? " asked the captain. 

'' No." 

" That's lucky." 

Sergeant Roussel was an able Instructor; none 
knew better than he how to make the soldier 
carry arms, and go through the various steps while 
keeping their shoulders squared, a most essential 
thing in such a case. Naturally gentle he did 
not allow his modest mouth to make use of those 
gross expressions, those guard-house oaths which 
his equals always used. When he was very angry. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 177 

he called his recruits candidates. " Just look at 
those candidates, they are as limp as rags; they all 
manoeuvre like seamstresses who have eaten cab- 
bage." 

You know that a soldier when marching must 
start with the left foot; once Sergeant Roussel 
drilling his men through various steps, orders 
march. One soldier starts with the right foot 
while his neighbour raises the left; Sergeant Rous- 
sel was standing in the back; this lack of harmony 
in the lines of all these legs astonishes his sense of 
exactness; but on seeing the effect he is mistaken 
in the cause, he comes forward very angry: 
" Who is the candidate," he says, " who has both 
his legs up? " 

He was not very strong on orthography. One 
day, in a report on the guard, wishing to write 
down the strength of his post composed of four 
men (quatre hommes) , he bravely wrote in large 
letters Katrom. Sergeant Roussel was then only 
Corporal Roussel. 

Strictly speaking, he did not need to know any 
more than that; but Laborie who, enlisted in 1780, 
had been made corporal there and then in 1789, 



178 AN OFFICER OF 

doubtless because of the great events of that time, 
then sergeant in 1794, sub-lieutenant in 1802 and 
lieutenant in 1806, Laborie making a report on 
the distribution of bread, and wishing to state that 
it was not good and not sufficiently baked (le 
pain n'est pas hon ni n'est pas assez cuit) wrote 
the whole thing in one word and in the following 
manner : " Pinpaboninepaasecui." 

And I could mention colonels and generals who 
knew no better. The one who said while speak- 
ing to Napoleon: " Monsieur, sire, I do not know 
'mattes, but I can give a good sabre blow," was 
general in the Imperial Guard, and certainly never 
was brigade commanded by a braver man. 

And that general who had received the order to 
proceed with his brigade as far as Lintz and to 
remain mounted on the road to Vienna and who, 
like Don Quixote, did actually remain mounted in 
the middle of the highway and would still be there 
if new orders had not made him dismount! 

And that colonel, commander of a fortified town, 
who received the order to redouble his watchful- 
ness so as not to be surprised by the enemy; the 
equinox being about due, the nights becoming 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 179 

longer, he was to be on his guard, etc. He re- 
viewed his posts, his artillery, and when he was 
certain that everything was in condition, he ex- 
claimed: "Let him come, that d General 

Equinox, we'll receive him with cannon shots." 
These men have conquered Europe; besides it is 
not necessary to know so very much to get killed. 

At the garrison, in the cafes, billiards play a 
great part; it is there that the officer squanders 
his money, wasting almost all the time he does 
not devote to military service. I say about all, 
because the ladies claim a part of It, and that is 
certainly the best employed. 

The officers meet at the cafe on the way to the 
parade, to the drill, and on the way back. It is 
there that the army news are spread, those of the 
regiment and the tittle-tattle of the barracks. They 
gamble, drink and smoke there : an officer is always 
found ready to play a game of billiards, smoke a 
cigar, have a drink. The glass of spirits is a thing 
that the young men newly dressed in the uniform 
dare not refuse ; they would fear to be taken for a 
fop. To take a drop, is a custom essentially mili- 
tary; one affects an old trooper air after having 



i8o AN OFFICER OF 

swallowed the stuff and draining the glass to the 
last drop, one tells some good drinking story. We 
at times heard some that were worthy of Rabelais. 
These habits are very injurious to health, all know 
it, but all wish to imitate the others. For a long 
time I drank a drop because I considered it very 
necessary; for form's sake, I regularly drank my 
three or four glasses of spirits a day. 

These pleasures, if they are pleasures, are the 
result of idleness, and are very costly; it is not 
unusual to see officers who, in this manner, spend 
in advance the month's pay. I have been through 
that many times; what I received was not suffi- 
cient to settle my open account at the garrison 
cafe. 

A sub-lieutenant of my acquaintance had been 
a sutler during the first campaigns of the Revolu- 
tion, and so as not to derogate, he had married 
Margot the canteen-woman. On receiving his 
epaulet, he left the lucrative business of serving 
drinks to others, but he retained for the tavern a 
very decided taste. Every evening, man and wife 
went arm in arm, the latter in a velvet hat with 
feathers, the former in uniform, to a wretched 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY i8i 

pot-house; and there, while drinking their bottle, 
they sang at the top of their voices. Nothing was 
more amusing than to see that loving couple bawl 
in chorus : " As soon as the dawn, etc.," and that 
without a smile, with imperturbable seriousness. 
Every day they began again, they would have been 
unable to go to sleep had they not sung their 
drinking song, to the very last verse. Whether 
the tavern was full, or they were alone, made no 
difference ; they looked at no one. Enjoying them- 
selves in their own way, it may be said that these 
two were very happy. Happiness! it Is every- 
where that one believes it to be. 

When we were to remain a long time in a gar- 
rison, we had two ways of jovially passing the 
time. If a lodge of free-masons existed, we pre- 
sented ourselves en masse, or else we organised 
one of our own. Everyone knows that while seek- 
ing the philosopher's stone, the brothers like to 
enjoy themselves, to feast. In many regiments, 
the officers formed a lodge of which the colonel 
was the master. 

After free-masonry came theatricals. This is 
another very pleasant way of passing the time when 



i82 AN OFFICER OF 

one Is young. At Magdeburg, the theatre hall 
of the town was exploited by bad German come- 
dians ; they refused to lend it to us, we immediately 
made another out of a fodder store. The garrison 
was at that time composed of twenty-five thousand 
men; each officer gave monthly one day's pay to 
defray the expenses of lighting, costumes and deco- 
rations. Soon our theatre was perfectly organ- 
ised, planned, fully supplied. It goes without 
saying that there was no paying at the door, and 
we were always applauded. Tickets we distrib- 
uted in the town, we had a full house, that is to 
say all the agreeableness of the profession with- 
out any of the inconveniences. Add to this that 
the wives of the officers, war commissaries, and 
supply clerks, who acted with us, were very 
amiable. 

At Magdeburg, the officer-actors performed no 
duties ; as the time spent behind the scenes served 
for the pleasure of their comrades, the latter did 
guard duty, commanded the drills, and everybody 
was happy. We played everything, tragedy, com- 
edy, opera, vaudeville. The orchestra, chosen 
among the musicians of all the regiments, was per- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 183 

feet. We have acted certain plays, on our Magde- 
burg stage, just as well as at the best theatres of 
France. We received all the novelties from Paris; 
they were studied at once and played as soon as 
at Lyons, Rouen, and Bordeaux. The poor Ger- 
man actors were unable to stand the competition 
of comedians who played gratis, and they went 
elsewhere to seek their fortune. 

There was some little friction as to the distri- 
bution of parts, and as Is usually the case, each 
wanted the brilliant one. When there was a part 
in which the actor had only to bring in a letter 
from Araminte, no player would have it, we were 
obliged to make use of a private for that service. 
All these little quarrels occasionally caused schism 
among the players; we separated, came together 
again, it was as at the theatres of Paris. 

One finds army men who always want to Intro- 
duce the military subordination and hierarchy into 
everything. Some claimed the character of Alceste 
as their own, because they were battalion chiefs; 
others of Scapin or Mascarllle, because they were 
war commissaries; a captain of grenadiers never 
would accept the part of Trissotin, because he 



i84 AN OFFICER OF 

would have been called a scoundrel by Clitandre, 
without being able to get any satisfaction. 

These pretensions were much greater with the 
wives of colonels or generals. They demanded a 
sort of subordination, marks of respect from the 
other women. Each had a party composed of 
officers of her regiment; often some have been 
seen, like Achilles, to withdraw to their tents, tak- 
ing with them a crowd of malcontents. But ennui 
soon got the better of them, diplomatic negotia- 
tions were begun, and the dissenting troop came 
back shortly after, with two or three plays learned 
with which they enriched our repertory. 

Let us speak of our garrison balls; they were 
as they are in Paris, there was much walking there, 
not much dancing. We had a system of piling 
in as many as possible; in this manner the lovers 
(they were very numerous in our regiments) were 
nearer their sweethearts, and the mammas, sepa- 
rated from their daughters by a wall of uniforms, 
could see nothing. Notes were exchanged, pres- 
sures of the hand, winks, whispered sweet nothings 
took the place of dancing, and everyone thought 
the ball delightful. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 185 

With women, it is the same thing; the ball is 
but a pretext, an opportunity to see the happy 
mortal one does not expect to meet elsewhere. 
And then, in a parlour a tender conversation would 
be too much noticed; when one dances, the music, 
the movements, the crowd, create a useful diver- 
sion. At the ball, the women appear to the best 
advantage, without considering the wonderful 
dresses ; they may walk, jump, go, come, Instead of 
remaining seated, stiff on their haunches, as straight 
as asparagus, a most uncomfortable and ungraceful 
position. Look a lady in the face, a moment after, 
you will see her turn her head to make you admire 
her profile. 

Behold in a parlour several young women assem- 
bled; they embroider, sew, read, speak, all is done 
very seriously. A young man comes in, suddenly 
they are seen to whisper; they seem to be telling 
one another the most amusing things, for they laugh 
very much. Yet they have really said nothing, 
but their faces have become animated, which sets 
off the brightness of their beautiful eyes. If, when 
the young man has entered, the shoulders of these 
young ladies were covered by a shawl, be certain 



i86 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

that, five minutes after, without fear of catching 
cold, they will have caused to disappear everything 
that may hinder their forms from being admired. 
A hundred times have I paid particular attention, 
and each time the shawl has slipped behind the 
arm-chair. 



CORPS VISITS 



CHAPTER XI 

CORPS VISITS 

Corps visits are really so entertaining a thing 
for the visitors as well as for those visited that It 
would be a pity not to devote a short chapter to 
them. 

A Chinese proverb says with reason: "When 
a man has ten paces to go, and has gone nine, he 
has gone half way." We, who are not obliged 
to know the language of the Celestial Empire, say 
prosaically, in kitchen style: " The tail Is the hard- 
est to skin." When a regiment is travelling and 
has reached its halting place, the soldiers go and 
rest at their lodgings, the officer has not finished 
his day's work. If he has reached a large city, 
he must during two or three hours walk the streets 
to visit the prefet, the general, the bishop, the 
mayor; so wills the regulations of 1791, an ordi- 
nance very wise, no doubt, but very boring for 
those who have to carry It out. 

189 



igo AN OFFICER OF 

Whatever the weather, you have to go; you 
arrive, and the colonel speaks: 

" Monsieur le Prefet, I have the honour of pre- 
senting to you the corps of officers of such and 
such a regiment; I am glad. Monsieur le Prefet, 
that the orders of the minister of war, in sending 
me to your city (or in making me go through it) 
have procured me the honour of knowing so dis- 
tinguished an administrator." 

^' Monsieur le colonel, I myself am much flat- 
tered to make the acquamtance of the officers of 
so fine a regiment." (The regiments are always 
fine.) " I was at my window when you arrived, 
I found your companies of grenadiers superb." 
(The companies of grenadiers are always superb.) 
"You have had very bad weather to-day?" 
(Sometimes M. le Prefet said that we had had 
good weather.) 

" Yes, Monsieur, but the roads of your depart- 
ment are so fine, so well cared for ! " (The prefet 
bowed.) 

" Your companies of footsoldiers are composed 
of less tall men, but they have appeared to me 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 191 

strong, vigorous, clean, full of enthusiasm." (The 
colonel bowed.) 

" A thing which struck me in the villages we 
have gone through to-day, Is the air of comfort, 
of happiness of all the Inhabitants." (The prefet 
bowed.) 

"As to your middle companies, one would 
hardly believe, on seeing them, that from these 
the picked regiments have been selected." (The 
colonel bowed.) 

" We saw, on the roadside, ploughmen, broad- 
shouldered, young, ruddy, full of spirits ; they sang 
as they worked." 

" They were rejoicing at the prospects of being 
a part of the next conscription; they are anxious 
to march. Yours is such a fine career. Messieurs, 
in the times of glory in which we are living." 

" Yours, Monsieur le Prefet, is not less honour- 
able." 

" In which department do you recruit? " 

" In Ardennes, Finistere, Calvados." 

" These departments furnish a fine species of 
men." (The reply was the same for all depart- 
ments. ) 



192 AN OFFICER OF 

" Yes, Monsieur, they are slow at becoming 
accustomed to military service, but as soon as they 
are . . ." 

" They are very good, I know it, your regiment 
has shown its capacity." (All the regiments have 
shown their capacity.) 

" Under Napoleon the Great, that is not a. 
merit." 

" You are fortunate. Messieurs, to serve him on 
the field of battle; if I were younger, I should 
march with you." (And the prefet, raising his 
head, immediately laid his hand on his sword.) 

" If the Emperor needs good soldiers, en- 
lightened and conscientious administrators are 
equally necessary to him." (And the prefet 
bowed.) 

" Let us work together for the glory of the hero 
who governs us; Messieurs, we shall strive to imi- 
tate you." 

The colonel bowed, the prefet bowed, everybody 
bowed, it was a moving sight. We then called on 
the other authorities, where the conversation was 
subject to a few variations of details. With the 
general we spoke of the profession ; with the bishop 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 193 

we talked of his cathedral which could be seen from, 
afar and which appeared to be a superb edifice, 
a fact of which the colonel rarely sought to assure 
himself by close Inspection; but everywhere the 
companies of grenadiers, of footsoldiers and the 
fine species of men came up again. All this some- 
times ended by an Invitation to dinner which made 
an agreeable change. 

Speaking of dinners, I must not forget to say a 
word with regard to those given by Marechal 
Davout. That brave marshal, among high mili- 
tary qualities, had an awful fault which made him 
many enemies among the gastronomists of the 
army. When he Invited us to dinner, It was a 
piece of perfidy on his part, not that his meals 
were without ceremony, but they were of despair- 
ing briefness. 

We sat down at table, ten minutes after we had 
to rise, because the host set the example. The 
first time I had the honour of sitting at the mar- 
shal's table, I was caught; hardly had I broken 
my bread and begun to eat of the first relishes 
to prepare the way than the signal of retreat was 
given. 



194 AN OFFICER OF 

"Where are we going?" I asked my neigh- 
bours. 

" We have finished." 

"Dining?" 

" Yes." 

" But I have not begun." 

" So much the worse for you." 

" It's an abominable trick, a wilful injury." 

" Agreed ! but the marshal imitates the Em- 
peror." 

" One should not always follow the examples 
of the great, 

" * Quand sur une personne on pretend se r^gler, 

C'est par les beaux cotes qu' il f aut lui ressembler.' " 

But on the second invitation, things were dif- 
ferent; I manoeuvred rapidly, my attacks were 
lively; everything within my reach was carried by 
storm. I had finished long before the others, and 
I told the same neighbours that the meal appeared 
to me much too long. 

In the Grand Army, almost all the generals had 
a soldier-cook. As conscription applied to all 
classes of society, cooks were not more exempt than 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 195 

others. But as soon as their talents were recog- 
nised, the greatest care was taken that the lives 
of these gentlemen should not be exposed to the 
hazards of war, nor their precious healths endan- 
gered by the inclemencies of sentry duty. They 
did nothing else but occupy themselves with the 
art of tickling the palate. 

But these artists worked much and well only 
during a campaign, at the bivouac, in certain can- 
tonments taken in times of war. Then from all 
sides, receiving the necessary materials, they had 
nothing else to do than to make them undergo the 
preparations inspired by the genius often hidden 
under a linen cap. In those lucky circumstances, 
the generals, the colonels Invited the officers ; from 
all sides you heard the clicking of forks ; open table 
was kept everywhere ; the peasant supplied, we felt 
perfectly at home. But as soon as order was 
re-established, and we returned to the garrison, 
with many of these higher officers, the cook became 
a useless personage. Reduced to preparing the 
modest pot-au-feu, his science served no one; he 
spoiled his hand. 

The Emperor gave his generals endowments, 



196 AN OFFICER OF 

presents, so that they might spend much; some of 
them overdid it, but the majority sinned the other 
way. One evening, at the Tuileries, General 

L arrives. Napoleon shakes his hand and 

notices that drops of water glisten on the gilt em- 
broideries. He turns and orders the first chamber- 
lain he sees to find out in what carriage the general 
came. Soon he is informed that he came in a cab ; 
numbered conveyances not being admitted in the 
court of the Tuileries, the general had gone a short 
distance on foot, which explains the presence of the 
raindrops. 

The next day a chamberlain comes to the house 
of the man with the wet coat. 

" The Emperor requests me, Monsieur, to offer 
you this carriage, these horses ; the finest to be found 
in Paris. The coachmen and laquais have been 
paid for a year. Here is the bill of cost; the 
amount will be deducted from your pay." 

General Friant was not only a very brave man, 
but besides a very good man whom everybody liked. 
When the officers of the corps made him a visit, 
he made us no speech; he was not a phraseologist 
by nature, he spoke but little, but what he said 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 197 

always made an impression, because It came from 
the heart. His face, bronzed by the sun of Egypt, 
his lively bright eyes, his natural warrior-like pose, 
all that gave to his every word keenness which many 
orators would like to add to their figures of rheto- 
ric. 

" Good morning, comrades, when one sees you, 
one pines for battle; just think of making peace 
when one has such regiments!" He meant it; 
even when he simply said to us : " Come In, Mes- 
sieurs, I am very glad to see you," one could see 
that he spoke the truth. General Friant was a 
brave and worthy man; never did officer call on 
him In fear, never did he leave him displeased. 
What I have said of the officers may be applied 
to the sergeants, the corporals, the privates. That 
man had the talent of making himself liked by all. 
That talent is rare. 

Other generals had acquired aristocratic habits, 
savouring of the age of Louis XIV at a league's 
distance; on the visits paid to them, we were re- 
ceived with pomp; you would have thought It a 
presentation at Versailles in the days of the old 
monarchy. Some disdained the title of general to 



igS AN OFFICER OF 

have themselves called Monseigneur or Excellence. 
Turenne thought more of his title of vicomte which 
he owed to chance than he did of that of Marshal 
of France. 

It is surprising that in that Imperial army, off- 
spring of the armies of 1792, the transition should 
have been so short between Republican ruggedness 
and servility. The patriots of levy quickly fash- 
ioned themselves to the manners of the old Court, 
and this without opposition. Leaving their huts 
for chateaux, they were not sorry to try their hand 
at the tyrant's part. The first among them became 
princes, dukes, counts ; the second barons and cheva- 
liers. The idea that one could derogate in aban- 
doning the glorious title of citizen never struck 
anyone. Those who remained plain Monsieur 
dared say nothing, because they feared to retard 
the epoch when the entail In Westphalia would 
cause them to enter In the privileged caste. Be- 
sides, these entails were dearly earned; conquered 
sword in hand, they became the reward of the blood 
shed in all Europe. Friant had three horses killed 
under him at the battle of Austerlitz ; he put three 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 199 

horse's heads in his arms; I know of no nobler 
blazon. 

The French officer, with his pride, his brilliant 
bravery, is something of a courtier. The habit he 
has of hierarchical obedience, combined with his 
greed for advancement, gives him that flattering 
tone in his intercourse with some, with which he 
at times indemnifies himself with others. At that 
time, a line written by the general-in-chief became 
a new rank, gave an entail; a name slipped in the 
bulletin created a military reputation and contained 
a whole future. 

When we travelled in Spain, the officer com- 
manding the advance guard sent for the alcalde in 
every village he went through and ordered him to 
have the bells rung on the arrival of the general- 
in-chief. He had learned his speech in Spanish 
by heart, but he knew, no more than that. Some- 
times the alcalde replied: 

" Pues, senor, que no a'i campanas." {Monsieur, 
there are no bells.) The officer, who did not un- 
derstand the answerless objection, continued on his 
way repeating : " Toca, toca las campanas." 



200 AN OFFICER OF 

While we were at Posen, there arrived the King, 
the Queen of Saxony and the Princess Augusta, 
their daughter. They were going to Warsaw to 
visit their new subjects in the grand-duchy. The 
garrison rendered them military honours; there 
filed before us the most numerous collection of old 
carriages ever seen anywhere. I do not know 
where that good prince had found all the old boxes 
that carried him and his suite. They certainly 
dated from 15 15, the time when the first coaches 
were made in Germany. You should have seen 
all those officers of the Court, all that composed 
the bootless of the King, the appearance of those 
fellows, their clothes and especially their wigs end- 
ing in a tail an ell in length. The most exag- 
gerated affair of this sort that one could see in the 
theatres of the boulevard would still be very far 
from reality. 

The next day, January ist, 1808, all the French 
and Polish officers had the honour of being pre- 
sented to Their Majesties. General Dombrowski 
gave us during this visit a rather comic little scene. 
He was near the King and Queen, presented to 
them in turn the Polish officers, bestirred himself 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY aoi 

immensely, spoke, bowed, and made his spurs ring 
in the Polish manner. On his turning, one of the 
rowels caught in the Queen's dress; the floor was 
slippery, he lost his equilibrium and fell. The 
dress of Her Majesty was torn from bottom to 
top, she herself would have been dragged down 
in the fall if someone had not caught her. All 
those present were dying with suppressed laughter; 
never was there anything so funny as the swarthy 
and moustachiod face of the old general; he lost 
himself In excuses, he could find no expressions 
strong enough, and I am quite certain that never 
in his campaigns was he in so awkward a position. 
What did the King do ? The King began to laugh, 
the Queen imitated him; example is contagious, 
everyone did the same, even the old general. 
Never perhaps has a Sovereign's audience been so 
merry; each was in a paroxysm of convulsive, inex- 
tinguishable laughter, which still continued when 
we found ourselves in the street. 

One day when I was absolutely without a cent, 
a thing, in fact, which happened to me sometimes, 
I had recourse to the purse of some friends. 
Montro . . . one of these, or so called, re- 



202 AN OFFICER OF 

sembled the ant of the fable ; he was not a lender 
by nature, and refused me on the pretext that he 
was like myself without money; I believed it, or at 
least I pretended to believe it. 

A few days after, we were at the table, and con- 
trary to his habit Montro . . . came in last. 
He was pale, choking with anger, trying to speak, 
but unable to do so. He had so many things to 
say that the words, pressing each other to come out 
at once, obstructed the passage. We heard here 
and there some interjection very expressive, no 
doubt, but which told us nothing. 

"What's the matter with you?" "Are you 
ill?" "Have you a fever?" "Are you in- 
sane? " These questions, or twenty others analo- 
gous to the circumstance, are hurled at him from 
all sides of the table. Finally, our man, putting 
order in his ideas, tells us that he has been robbed 
during the night, that a purse containing twenty- 
five beautiful louis, saved piece by piece, in depriv- 
ing himself of all, had disappeared; that he sus- 
pects a Jew, his host, of being guilty of the theft, 
and that if he can secure proof, he will try to 
have him hanged. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 203 

Montro . . . was not beloved by his com- 
rades; he lived aloof, and like a miser, to use a 
barrack expression. I saw at a glance that his 
misadventure amused everyone ; that far from pity- 
ing him, each of those present whispered: " Good, 
the Jew did well." I thought that I would take 
advantage of the circumstance and avenge myself 
a little for the refusal I had experienced. With 
tragic-comic seriousness, I addressed the merry com- 
pany: "Gentlemen," said I, "our comrade cer- 
tainly has a fever, the mania by which he is 
possessed to pile ecu on ecu occupies him to such 
an extent when he is In good health, his mind is 
so busy incessantly working on the words silver, 
pay, gold louis, that to-day, when he is ill, It con- 
tinues the same work through habit. The desire 
he had, when In good health, to possess fifty louis, 
causes him to believe to-day that he had that 
amount; the fear he would have had to lose them 
finds Itself changed, by an attack of fever, to the 
certainty of having been robbed. 

" God forbid, Messieurs, that I should dare to 
state something of which I am not certain ! I am 
incapable of it, and you all know it. Recently 



ao4 AN OFFICER OF 

I needed some hundred francs which one of you 
very obligingly lent me. Our comrade to whom 
I had first applied, replied that he was like myself, 
penniless ; I believed him, for he gave me his word. 
Now, Messieurs, the word of an officer is a sacred 
thing, we must all believe In it, we do believe in 
it, and everything that may later be said in a 
moment of delirium caused by fever should not 
awaken the slightest suspicion in our minds. I 
therefore conclude that this word of honour be 
accepted at its full worth ; that what our poor sick 
comrade has said be considered void, and that, 
in view of the condition in which he is, we Induce 
him to go to bed at once, and without dinner." 

Mirabeau thundering on the speaker's platform, 
never made a greater Impression on his hearers; 
applause broke out from all sides; loud bravos 
shook the rafters. Montro . . . furious, 
attempted to retort. All said to him : " Go to bed, 
Bazlle, go to bed." Then Dr. Margalllan, who 
was present, arose, saying that matter was within 
his province, and approached to feel his pulse. 
Our man protested, struggled on his chair; four 
powerful fellows held him down. When he had 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 205 

counted the pulsations with comical gravity, the 
physician declared that the ailment was a gastro- 
cephalalgy, that he must be abundantly phlebot- 
omised; that an absolute diet was Indispensable; 
that he should be well purged so as to clear his 
brain, and that In the meantime he had to go to 
bed. 

Montro . . .'s eyes bulged out of their sockets; 
he was beside himself with rage, because every 
time he attempted to speak, his voice was drowned 
by thirty other voices which prevented him from 
being heard. " You are sick! " was shouted from 
every side. "You have a fever! " "You have 
gastro-cephalalgy, the doctor said so." " Were 
you not sick, you should be compelled to become 
so." 

" You will answer for this," he said, leaving the 
hall In a paroxysm of fury hard to describe. He 
was answered that the provocations of a feverish 
person were not to be considered, and that he 
would do well to go to bed. 

The funny thing about this affair. Is that 
Montro . . . was ill, that he really had a 
fever, and that the doctor's prescription was car- 



2o6 AN OFFICER OF 

ried out in its entirety. When cured, our man 
attempted to be ugly; but he was made to under- 
stand that it was not an equal match, and time 
mended everything. 

I have never seen anyone love money as 
Montro . . . did. This passion was rare 
among the young men of the army; their chief 
occupation was to lead a merry life and not to 
hoard. When Montro . . . received his pay. 
he rushed to a Jew, purchased gold, and put it 
away in a leather belt which he kept about him 
at all times, since the adventure just mentioned. 
After having converted everything he could into 
gold, if he had a fraction of twelve or fifteen 
francs left over, he borrowed enough to complete 
the value of a gold napoleon, so that he could 
place it with the others. 

Montro . . . did not profit by his hoard- 
ing. The Cossacks, after having killed the miser, 
put his gold into circulation. 

But let us return to our corps visits; It is espe- 
cially on January ist that we have our fill; during 
that blessed day, the amateurs may have as much 
as they like of them. It begins in the morning 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 207 

very early and lasts until evening. If one hap- 
pens to be In Paris, one begins again the next day, 
which does not make It more agreeable. 

All these visits are made hierarchically from 
rank to rank; the sub-lieutenant, after having re- 
ceived the compliments of the sergeants and cor- 
porals, takes them to the lieutenant, who In turn 
takes them to the captain. The three then betake 
themselves to the chief of battalion who, followed 
by his subordinates, calls on the colonel. The 
latter takes them all to the brigadier-general. 
There they find another corps of officers ; and they 
take advantage of the opportunity to wish them 
a happy new year, then they go to the lieutenant- 
general, where they meet another brigade and the 
ceremony Is repeated. You can Imagine that the 
snow ball continuing to Increase and never decreas- 
ing, must finally be quite large, and that is why 
the Parisians are all amazed, when on the first 
of January a swarm of officers Impedes the traffic 
of the omnibuses. At each visit one talks shop 
a bit, so as not to lose the habit. On that day 
little faults are pardoned; the doors of the guard- 
room are opened, but as a frightful quantity of 



2o8 AN OFFICER OF 

glasses of spirits are drunk, it is again full to its 
utmost capacity the next day, which compen- 
sates. 

At the high officials' on whom we called, the 
corps visits almost always ended by an invitation 
to dinner for the next day, when the regiment 
was to remain in the town. 

At Fulde, one-half of the officers were invited 
at the prince primate's. He was a man of remark- 
able intelligence and very well educated; small, 
thin, his face had some analogy with that of the 
monkey. He received us in a purple cossack; he 
was a bishop. Monseigneur had a very pretty 
sapajou, dressed like a Versailles courtier, spangled 
breeches, hat with feathers, embroidered coat, 
sword, nothing was missing. The animal was 
gambolling around his master, imitating the salu- 
tations which he saw made, and returning them 
to everybody. 

Soon the dinner is announced, the bishop invites 
us to step into the dining-room; each one hastens 
to obey the pleasant call. 

Everyone had crossed the threshold of the hall, 
the bishop remained alone with his monkey and 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 209 

an officer who was making objections to going in 
first. 

" I beg you, Monseigneur." 

" But, Monsieur, I am In my own house." 

" I wish at least to allow your son to pass 
ahead." 

At these words, a burst of laughter, not unlike 
the explosion of a magazine, broke out from all 
parts of the dining-room; the bishop laughed so 
that we were anxious for his life ; the officer alone 
remained serious. . . . He did not under- 
stand. 



THE REVIEWS 



CHAPTER XII 

THE REVIEWS 

A review is sometimes a very amusing sight 
for the public, seated or standing, in the pit; but 
for the actors, it is another matter. The former 
may withdraw whenever it wishes, the latter must 
remain until the end of the play. 

When the Emperor ordered a review for noon, 
the generals passed the inspection at eleven o'clock, 
the colonels had their regiments take up arms at 
ten. Before that the chiefs of battalions wanted 
to make sure that all was well, and began at nine 
o'clock; and so on in decreasing proportion, to 
the corporal who had his squad up at five in the 
morning. All these successive taking up of arms 
tire the French soldier more than a day of combat. 

He knows that the battle is necessary, he goes 
to it willingly; as to the other, he readily sees that 
it would be possible to dispense with him for it. 

213 



214 AN OFFICER OF 

When the troops are on the ground, how many 
marches, counter-marches before each corps is 
definitely placed I How many lines formed and 
formed again before the Emperor comes! At 
last the drums beat a salute on all lines : here he is ! 
His small hat, his mounted chasseur's green coat, 
distinguish him in the midst of that crowd of 
princes and generals loaded down with embroid- 
eries. 

People to-day speak only of the soldiers' love 
for Napoleon, of the shouts a thousand times re- 
peated ringing out as he passed; it is perhaps 
wrong in me to contradict a thing affirmed by so 
many illustrious persons, but I must say and I do 
say that these shouts were very rare. 

There was good fighting in the Grand Army, 
but there was but little shouting, and much grum- 
bling. 

We were in camp, under the walls of Tilsit; 
there was a talk of peace, of an interview between 
the two Emperors, and we marched down to the 
banks of the Niemen to see what was taking place. 
On our arrival the conference was ended, the two 
boats bearing the sovereigns were each going 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 215 

towards the opposite shore. Emperor Alexander 
landed first; and was saluted by a general cheer 
from his troops. Napoleon appeared on our 
shore, Talleyrand offered him his arm to help him 
land. Not a shout was heard among the soldiers. 
Several officers, however, took the initiative. We 
each told our neighbour that Napoleon should not 
be less warmly received by us than Alexander by 
the Russians; and we heard here and there scat- 
tered cries of " Vive VEmpereurl " 

" His Majesty is coming," our colonel used to 
say at the time of a review; I trust that the same 
will not be done as the last time, and that your 
soldiers will shout : ' Five VEmpereur! ' I shall 
hold you responsible, Messieurs, if every soldier 
does not shout loudly." 

■We returned to our companies paraphrasing 
the colonel's speech, and this is what we heard 
murmured in the ranks: 

" Let him give me my discharge, and I'll cheer 
as much as they please ! " 

" We have no bread; when my stomach Is empty, 
I can not cheer." 

" I had enlisted for six months, and here I've 



2i6 AN OFFICER OF 

been twenty years in the army ; I shall cheer when 
I'm sent away." 

" There is six months' pay due us, why does 
he not give it to us ? " 

" Don't you know wliy? I'll tell you: it is be- 
cause, in the meantime, all those who arc killed 
are as good as paid, etc., etc." 

The Emperor came ; the colonel and a few offi- 
cers shouted at the top of their voices, and the 
rest remained silent. I have never heard French 
soldiers frankly cry: "Vive I'Empereur! " except 
in 1 8 14 and 18 15, when they were told to shout: 
" Vive le Roil " I must say that then they shouted 
themselves hoarse: why? Because the soldier is 
essentially a frondeur, be it that he wishes from 
time to time to indemnify himself for his sheep- 
like obedience, or that he is secretly envious of 
those who command him, as a servant is of his 
master, and the pupil of his instructor. 

In 1 8 15, a regiment was going through one of 
the southern cities; the soldiers exhorted one an- 
other to shout : '' Vive I'Empereur! " together and 
with all their might; the noise was great enough 
to burst the drum of the ears, to break the win- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 217 

dow-panes. After each chorus, they laughed In 
their sleeves, saying: 

" Good! that irritates the bourgeois." 
How often has it been published that the sol- 
diers fought for the Emperor ! this again is a nec- 
essary protocol that many people have said and 
repeated without knowing why. The soldiers 
fought for their own account, to defend them- 
selves, because in France one never hesitates when 
one sees danger on one side and infamy on the 
other. They fought because it was impossible to 
do otherwise, because they had to fight, because 
on entering the army they had found that fashion 
established, and that everything tended to pre- 
serve that good habit. They fought under the 
old monarchy with Turenne, Villars and Marshal 
de Saxc; under the Republic, with Hoche, Moreau, 
Kleber, and so many others ; they will fight when- 
ever their country will call them. Show them 
Prussians, Russians, or Austrians, and, whether 
it be Napoleon, Charles X or Louis Philippe com- 
manding them, be certain that the French soldiers 
will do their duty. 

Nevertheless, I know very well that the Em- 



2i8 AN OFFICER OF 

peror's presence In the army produced a great 
effect. Everyone had the bhndest confidence in 
him; It was known by experience that his plans 
would bring victory ; so that, when he arrived, our 
forces were morally doubled. But this perpetuity 
of combats tired the old soldiers, the old officers, 
and the old generals very much; they did not hesi- 
tate to say so, which prevented no one from doing 
his duty when the occasion offered. 

During the Empire, the soldiers dreamed only 
of leave, peace, return to France; just as to-day 
they only dream of war, campaigns, bivouacs, com- 
bats and battles. They returned to France, and 
had peace and their leave: what did they do? 
They began to regret old times. Why ? Because 
the heart of man always rushes forward towards 
a future which, having become the present, dis- 
pleases just because It Is no longer surrounded by 
clouds. " What luck! " they said, " If we should 
have peace! " They say to-day: " What luck, If 
we should have war ! " And then, I repeat it, sol- 
diers are frondeurs; several among them, while 
enjoying the repose of civil life, were not sorry 
to appear to regret the tumult of the camps ; each 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 219 

one knew very well that all their murmurs would 
not prevent things from going their own way, and 
they gave themselves a little touch of the hero in 
their neighbourhoods. However, the lithogra- 
phers decorated the boulevards of Paris with por- 
traits of old soldiers with large moustaches who 
were weeping at the sight of the word discharge 
on a card. The innumerable loungers of the cap- 
ital deplored in elegiac prose the fate of our brave 
warriors who were pitilessly sent away, as if at all 
times in France there did not always exist places 
for private soldiers at the disposal of amateurs. 

The French have performed prodigies of valour, 
and to use an expression of Napoleon : " Have 
squandered glory " ; but there would be no harm 
in letting other people say It, we should not daily 
break our own noses with blows of a censer. 

Napoleon was no doubt a great general; his 
campaigns in Italy are well nigh marvellous, for 
at that time he did not have at his disposal the 
immense resources of which he later made use. 
The battles of the Empire have made much more 
noise, but they will never efface the glory of the 
first. " Everywhere victory was the result," some 



220 AN OFFICER OF 

will say. Very well, but merit Is usually measured 
by the obstacles overthrown, and the glory of 
Bonaparte will never be eclipsed by that of Napo- 
leon ; for the means of the Emperor were the most 
vast any general ever disposed of. When from 
a country like France one draws the last man and 
the last ecu, when one Is accountable to no person, 
it Is not astonishing that with a well-balanced head 
one should do great deeds, the contrary would be 
more surprising. Imagine Napoleon with a rep- 
resentative government such as exists in France 
to-day ; he would probably have been soon stopped 
In his victorious march. For there are 80,000 men 
levied yearly, but the reports for each department 
are published In the newspapers, and the total is 
exactly In accordance with the figure demanded 
by law. In each department they publish the dis- 
tribution by canton, and the whole carefully added 
represents the total by department. During the 
Empire, when 100,000 men were ostensibly de- 
manded, 300,000 In reality were sent away; and 
with the prefets, this was a perpetual subject of 
emulation to reach the Council of State whose seats 
were In competition. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 221 

Now, what would Napoleon have done with a 
poor little conscription of 100,000 men, from 
France ? Eighty thousand would have joined their 
flags, half, as is usual, would have been in the 
hospitals one week after; 40,000 only could be 
put In line, and 40,000 men were a very small 
matter In a time of such great expenses. They 
would have sufficed to defray the cost of one 
day; some might even be mentioned that cost 
more. 

At each review, the Emperor made appointments 
to vacancies, he distributed crosses of the Legion 
of Honour, baronies, earldoms, entails. It was 
for the regiments a piece of good luck to be re- 
viewed by the Emperor. But this was supremely 
unjust; I might mention regiments who during a 
campaign have seen the Emperor five or six times ; 
their officers changed ranks every month, while 
other regiments, detached two leagues farther, 
have obtained nothing from the Imperial munifi- 
cence. 

Sometimes Napoleon liked to question the offi- 
cers ; when they answered promptly, without hesi- 
tation, he appeared well pleased. After the battle 



222 AN OFFICER OF 

of Ratisbon, he stopped before an officer of the 
regiment, 

" How many men present under arms? " 

" Sire, eighty-four." 

" How many recruits of this year? " 

" Twenty- two." 

" How many soldiers with four years' service? " 

" Seventy-five." 

" How many wounded yesterday? '* 

" Eighteen." 

"How many killed?" 

"Ten." 

" By the bayonet? 

" Yes, Sire." 

" Good." 

To be killed regularly, one had to be killed by 
the bayonet, a coward may die afar, struck by a 
bullet or a cannon ball; he who dies of a bayonet 
thrust is necessarily a hero. The Emperor had 
an extreme fondness for those who perished in this 
manner. The questions continued a long time on 
all sorts of details; he did not listen to the replies, 
which frequently did not agree with the preceding 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 223 

figures ; the essential was to make them quickly and 
without hesitation. 

The Emperor has often been seen detaching his 
own cross of the Legion of Honour to place it him- 
self on the breast of a hero. Louis XIV would 
first have asked if the brave man was a noble; 
Napoleon asked if the noble was brave. A ser- 
geant who in a battle had performed prodigies 
of valour, was brought before Louis XIV: "I 
grant you a pension of 1,200 livres/' said the King. 
" Sire, I should prefer the cross of Saint Louis." 
" I should think so, but you will not get It." 
Napoleon would have embraced the sergeant, 
Louis XIV turned his back on him. It is the de- 
cided distinction which separates the two epochs. 
Napoleon had a superb head, eyes that flashed 
lightning; his bearing was noble and severe. 
However, I one day saw the great man in the 
throes of irrepressible laughter; an emperor 
may laugh just as any other man ; sovereigns would 
be greatly to be pitied if at times they did not have 
those good opportunities to laugh which do one 
so much good. 



224 AN OFFICER OF 

Here Is the occurrence : We were at Courbevoie ; 
the Emperor was reviewing a regiment of the 
young Guard, recently increased by numerous 
recruits. His Majesty was questioning these 
young men. 

" And you, where do you come from? " 
" Sire," replied the recruit, " I am from Peze- 
nas; and my father had the honour of shaving 
Your Eminence when you went through our town." 
At these words, the Emperor became man, 
decorum was forgotten ; I do not believe that Napo- 
leon ever laughed so heartily, even when he was 
at school at Brienne. The review ended gaily; 
laughter is contagious, the answer was repeated 
from rank to rank, from right to left; everyone 
burst into laughter; the native of Pezenas was 
proud to have made the review so merry. 

In Berlin I lodged at Major Hanslng's, an old 
soldier who, from his campaigns in Silesia with 
Frederick, had brought back only a meagre pen- 
sion and the gout. As an admirer of the hero of 
Prussia, the major was a Prussian and a half; we 
discussed without being able to agree; the subject 
of our ordinary conversations was an hypothesis: 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 225 

What would have happened had Frederick lived 
at the same time as Napoleon? Never was so vast 
a theme offered in controversy. Each one of us 
preached for his own saint, and our prattling ended 
as end political or religious discussions; each re- 
tained his opinion, for no one is any longer con- 
verted. 

In Berlin, in all Prussia, the name of Frederick 
II is held in great veneration; his portrait is to be 
found everywhere, in the fine residences as well as 
in the cottages. You see him standing, or riding, 
on the walls of the salons, of the antechambers and 
of the kitchens ; painted or engraved, carved, cast, 
struck. This portrait ornaments the jewels, snuff- 
boxes and pipes. I do not believe that the image 
of any man has ever so often been reproduced. 
Whenever we looked at it, the eyes of our host 
brightened; he always exclaimed with satisfaction: 
" Es ist mein alter guter Fritz." (That is my 
good old Frederick.) And then he added between 
his teeth: " Ah! if he were living, you would not 
be here." 

" That's not quite so certain," we replied some- 
times. 



226 AN OFFICER OF 

Good Major Hansing often told me anecdotes 
about the Prussian hero ; I very much regret having 
forgotten them. Here is one, however, which I 
find In a corner of my memory. 

The immense popularity which Frederick had 
acquired in his army, he owed more to his charla- 
tanism than to his military genius. When he was 
passing a review, and he frequently did, he was 
given a dozen notes relating to divers officers and 
soldiers. On a little slip of paper which he held 
in his hand, were the name and biography of an 
individual of his army, the number of the regi- 
ment, of the battalion, of the company; the King 
knew in what line the man stood, what place he 
occupied in the line. Frederick, passing before 
his troops at the amble of his white horse, 
counted the rows; came before his soldier, and 
stopped: 

" Good morning, so and so, well! you know the 
news, your sister is married." 

" Yesterday, I received word about it from Bres- 
lau. That marriage pleases me very much. You 
will so inform your father at the first opportunity." 

" Yes, Sire." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 227 

" He was a brave fellow, your father, one of my 
old soldiers of Molwltz ; tell him in your letter that 
I have appointed him doorkeeper at Potsdam; I 
never forget old soldiers." 

The King continued on his way and stopped 
further off in front of an officer : he spoke to him 
of a lawsuit which his family had just won; of the 
death of a relative who left a rich inheritance, etc. 
Frederick went Into the smallest details. A little 
further, he reproached someone for a slight prank, 
others received praise; to all he spoke of small 
matters, of things of special Interest to each. All 
the soldiers thought themselves known by the King, 
each tried to attract the attention of Frederick, and 
all shouted on his passage : " Es lehe unser guter 
Fritz!" (Long live our good Frederick!) As 
he went along, the great man said to those In his 
confidence : " That is the oil with which I oil the 
wheels of my machine." 

Paul I, whom I am far from comparing to 
Frederick, had a rather queer habit. When he 
held a review, he addressed to the officers the most 
singular, the most ridiculous questions, to which It 
was Impossible to reply seriously; several officers 



228 AN OFFICER OF 

of one regiment, much embarrassed by such queries, 
had been unable to answer, and since that time, the 
Emperor said that these gentlemen served in his 
regiment of / do not know. 

On a certain day, while passing on horseback on 
the Saint Petersburg bridge, Paul I sees an officer 
who stands aside and salutes him with respect. The 
Emperor recognises the uniform and says to his 
courtiers : " He belongs to my regiment of / do 
not know." 

" Sire, I know everything, I do," replied the 
officer. 

"Ah! ah! you know everything, that is what 
we shall see. How many nails were there required 
to put together the boards on this bridge?" 

" Fifty-three millions nine hundred and seventy- 
seven thousand one hundred and twelve." 

" That's not so bad ! and how many fish are there 
In the Neva from this bridge to Cronstadt? " 

" Six hundred and forty-two milliards eight hun- 
dred and one millions four hundred and thirty-two 
thousand three hundred and seventy." 

" You are sure of It? " 

" Were I not, should I tell Your Majesty! " 




FREDERICK WILLIAM THIRD 
King of Prussia. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 229 

" That's what I thought : I like to have people 
answer questions, an officer should know every- 
thing." 

" Certainly: and the Emperor? " 

" He is never embarrassed." 

" Will Your Majesty permit me to ask a ques- 
tion?" 

" Speak." 

" What is my name? " 

" Comte de Balonski." '■ 

"My rank?" 

" Captain in my guard." 

" I thank you." 

I have this anecdote from a French emigre, an 
eye-witness, who knew Sub-lieutenant Krasanow, 
who owing to a moment of effrontery and the whim 
of a sovereign, became a count and a captain in 
the Russian Imperial Guard. 

All sovereigns like to hold reviews ; Frederick II 
sent out letters of invitation, and each guest was 
placed well or 111, but at the exact place designated 
by the King. Napoleon was not so particular: 
those who wished could come, and they placed 
themselves wherever they could. One of the finest 



230 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

reviews ever held in this world, is certainly the one 
held by the Emperor at Tilsit. Alexander and 
Frederick William were at the side of Napoleon. 



THE BARRACKS 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE BARRACKS 

The recruit which fate tears from the paternal 
hearth departs weeping; when he is at the barracks 
he has forgotten everything. Fearing the jests of 
his comrades, his tears are soon dry; ridicule, with 
us. Frenchmen, frightens more than a sword blow. 
When the raw soldier is measured, numbered, 
dressed from head to foot, he might be taken from 
a distance for a hero of Austerlitz. But near, it 
is another matter: his figure is stiff, he knows not 
what to do with his arms, his legs are in the way, 
and the raw recruit while out for a stroll always 
has a stick in his hand to keep up his countenance. 

However, the instructor arrives : he is a corporal 
with prominent moustachios, a good speaker; in 
the interval of rest separating the hours of drill, 
he never fails to relate to the newcomer all the 
wonderful deeds which formerly have made his 
name illustrious. The recruit listens, open- 

233 



234 AN OFFICER OF 

mouthed, and does not understand how the cor- 
poral has not yet become a colonel. The slight 
advancement of a man so illustrious discourages 
him. 

The soldier is a man who possesses his twelve 
hundred francs income, wholly clear, without bank- 
ruptcy, without indemnity, without assessments, 
without bad debts. I have calculated the value 
of his lodgings, his food, his clothes, his heating, 
his furniture, which he constantly uses and never 
renews; from all my figures I have deduced that 
many rentiers do not live as comfortably, and espe- 
cially without care, as the soldier does. Should he 
be ill? his doctors in ordinary, his surgeons in em- 
broidered clothes, are delighted to treat him free 
of charge; the apothecary supplies him gratis with 
emetic and quinquina; leeches, brought at great 
expense from Hungary, lavish on him their benefi- 
cent punctures, under the watchful eye of the nurse, 
who places them on the parts indicated by the pre- 
scription. 

And then, besides all these advantages, think 
also of the pocket-sou. The pocket-sou, ever com- 
ing, always disappearing: a fertile, inexhaustible 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 235 

mine, which provides for all pleasures, from the 
" drop " of brandy to the pipe of tobacco. 

The soldier always dwells in the finest house in 
the town. Go to Saint Denis, ask for the finest 
mansion: It Is the barracks; at VIncennes, the sol- 
diers Inhabit the apartments of our Kings ; at Avig- 
non, they are Installed In the palace of the Popes. 
Well dressed, kept warm, with a good bed, well 
fed, what does the soldier lack? This Is what he 
lacks: freedom from the collar. 

That collar which Is riveted around the soldier's 
neck is broken only by the discharge, he Is freed 
from It only on the last day of service, or by a 
cannon ball. All the time that the soldier spends 
at the regiment Is divided In a hundred different 
manners, of which hardly one belongs to him. If 
he sleeps, the drum awakens him; If he Is awake, 
the drum calls him to sleep. The drum makes him 
march, stops him, takes him to the drill, to the 
combat, to mass, to the walk. " I am hungry." 
*' You are mistaken, my friend, the drum has not 
beaten the roll, which alone should stir the fibres 
of your stomach. The soup can not be ready for 
the drum has not said so." 



236 AN OFFICER OF 

All these orders of the drum, of the corporal or 
of the officers must be carried out at once, without 
remarks, without answers. When the clock-maker 
winds the clock, it goes without asking why. Sol- 
dier ! you are a clock ; march, turn, halt, and above 
all not a word. 

" But, captain . . ." 

*' To the guard-house for two days." 

" If you would only listen to me . . ." 

" Four days." 

"Yet . . ." 

" Eight days." 

" It is injust." 

" In prison for two weeks. If you say another 
word, look out of the dungeon and court-mar- 
tial." 

It is the summary justice of the regiment, one 
becomes accustomed to it as to everything else; 
as soon as a soldier has experienced the guard- 
house, he strikes a difference and later profits by 
the lesson. I, however, except the scamps, incor- 
rigible fellows, habitual guests of the prison, who 
finally end in the galleys or by being shot. 

This great severity was necessarily required to 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 237 

permit of a single man becoming master of one 
hundred thousand armed ones. Passive obedience 
from rank to rank is the condition sine qua non 
of the existence of an army. The most fooHsh, the 
most stupid order must be carried out without a 
murmur. What could be done if everyone took 
upon himself the right of giving his opinion? We 
all think ourselves quite intelligent; within our- 
selves we often call fools our neighbour who on 
his side returns the compliment with interest. A 
military chief who should consult his officers, who 
should even listen to their remonstrances, would 
never be certain of the carrying out of an order. 
One would modify it; another would think he was 
saving the army by doing the exact opposite. 

In a discussion between a superior and an in- 
ferior, the greatest mistake of the latter is to be 
right. In the army, I have known officers of much 
intelligence, who denied themselves, bowed to every 
whim, established themselves advisers of high per- 
sonages, and never allowed it to be thought that 
they had suggested good advice. This is the quin- 
tessence of the courtier's act, everybody can not 
reach that point. 



238 AN OFFICER OF 

Many generals wanted to play the part of 
princes. 

The uniform of aides-de-camp were a blue dress 
jacket with sky-blue cuffs and collar. Almost all 
the servants of the generals were thus dressed; all 
they lacked was the epaulet. In this manner one 
had a finely organised corps of servants of all 
ranks: captain, lieutenant, valet, grooms, etc. 
These aristocratic fashions had replaced Repub- 
lican plainness, with no shade of transition. I have 
known aides-de-camp who admirably lent them- 
selves to all these forms of hierarchical servitude; 
they went before the valet de chamhre, that was 
sufficient for them. On the other hand, I have 
known generals who carried reserve to the verge 
of scruple. Never would they have demanded of 
officers under them a service not within the sphere 
of military duties. 

I arrive one day with General P at an 

uninhabited house ; it was pouring, our clothes were 
wet through, we light a fire, we warm ourselves. 

" Sit down there," says the general to me. 

" What for? " 

" I want to pull off your boots." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 239 

" You are jesting! " 

" Not at all, give me your foot." 

" General, I can not allow you." 

" Your boots are wet, your feet are in water, 
you will catch cold." 

" But I'll take them off myself." 

" I want to take them off for you." 

Willing or no, the general drew off my boots; 
my astonishment was extreme; when it was done: 

" My turn now," said he; " one good turn de- 
serves another; take off my boots." 

" With pleasure." 

" To have the right to ask you that favour, I 
had to go about it that way." 

It must not be believed that the soldier at the 
barracks leads an idle life ; his duties are linked 
one with the other in such a manner that he only 
rests by changing his work. The drudgery for 
the general cleanliness of the buildings and courts, 
the cleaning of his weapons and clothes, the drill, 
guard duty ; one thing follows the other periodically 
so that the soldier should not long be idle. 

In the barracks one reads much In leisure mo- 
ments; very blood-thirsty novels are In great 



240 AN OFFICER OF 

favour. One always sees a reading room near 
the place where the regiment is quartered. Enter, 
and you will easily recognise the popular books 
by the thick layer of black which serves as a cover. 
I was one day standing near the lady in charge; 
enters a young recruit, stick in hand. 

" Have you Robert, chief of brigands?" 

" No, Monsieur, it is out." 

" Have you Rinaldo Rinaldini? " 

" No, Monsieur, your comrades are reading It." 

" Have you . . . but I do not know the 
titles ; let me have some other book of brigandage." 

Five or six combine together for the same sub- 
scription, sometimes the entire squad, and the ablest 
does the reading aloud. It is a pleasure to see all 
these worthy troopers listening, open-mouthed, to 
the marvellous stories of Cartouche, Mandrin or 
of La Ramee. Not that the soldiers feel any 
special sympathy for robbers, but the adventurous 
life of the latter has some resemblance with the 
episodes, the dangers of the career of glory. They 
prefer to read the story of robbers than that of 
heroes, they know the latter by heart, they have 
learned all our campaigns, all our sabre strokes 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 241 

without loosening their purse strings. In each 
barrack-room there is always to be found an old 
soldier who has seen everything, and who never 
allows the chance to slip to recount his feats of 
valour. In each company there exists a man of 
that kind whose moral Influence over his comrades 
is very wide. It is he who criticises the captain's 
every operation. " In my former regiment," he 
always says, " we did not do thus." His former 
regiment is his charger, it is the example which 
everyone must follow. When he changes corps, 
the one he leaves will in turn become the model, 
for he cannot cite two of them, and the last will 
always be the best. 

In the barracks, there is a wing to lodge a cer- 
tain number of officers; a few shepherds are of 
course needed for so large a flock. In the bar- 
racks are to be found dealers in wine, brandy and 
tobacco, sometimes billiard-rooms and restaurants. 

The canteen-woman, after having carried her 
keg slung over her shoulder on the highways, takes 
her ease in a corner of the ground floor, pompously 
called restaurant. Further off, is the cafe ; do not 
seek the luxury of gildings, mirrors and crystal 



242 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

chandeliers there; what does It matter? it offers 
to the sub-lieutenants a great advantage which 
acts as a sufficient compensation; credit is given 
until the end of the month, and for certain purses, 
this is an Important matter. 

I have been through that many times. Experto 
crede Roberto. And it is there that the regiment 
news are told. There also sometimes are weighed 
the destinies of Europe. 



PRISONERS OF WAR ~ MILITARY 
EXECUTIONS 



CHAPTER XIV 

PRISONERS OF WAR — MILITARY EXECUTIONS 

Among eivllised nations, ours is the one which; 
treats prisoners of war best. In France, a dis- 
armed enemy is no longer an enemy ; not only does 
the government take care of them, but besides 
this, private Individuals give them all the assistance 
in their power. When columns of prisoners of 
war crossed France, charitable people were seen 
in every city to take up collections for their benefit. 
All Europe Is there to testify to the truth of this, 
for we have had In France prisoners from all parts 
of Europe. 

Indeed, we were far from receiving the same 
treatment in foreign lands. In Russia, our unfor- 
tunate fellow-soldiers were sent to Siberia, and 
God knows what they had to endure. In England, 
not only did they have to suffer from the harshness 
of the government, but individuals themselves 
treated them as enemies ; the hatred between nation 

245 



246 AN OFFICER OF 

and nation had become a hatred between man and 
man. The people who carried barbarity the far- 
thest, was without contradiction, the Spanish peo- 
ple. When our unfortunate prisoners were not 
hanged, they crossed Spain In the midst of all 
possible outrages ; they suffered hunger, thirst ; daily 
attacked with stones, covered with mud, those who 
objected to this Infamous treatment were Impris- 
oned In the Island of Cabrera, in the convict-ships 
of Cadiz ! These horrors have been made known 
to me through report only ; they prove that a man 
can suffer many grievous things without dying, 
and that a great resemblance exists between the 
old Christians of Spain and the cannibals of the 
South Sea. 

During our sojourn at Polsen, there passed 
through that city a column of Russian prisoners 
which Napoleon was sending back to Emperor 
Alexander, armed, dressed, newly equipped and 
organised into regiments. Bonaparte, a few years 
before, had done the same act of politeness to 
Paul I, in returning in the same way the prisoners 
made by Massena In the campaign of Switzerland. 
Our soldiers were furious to see new clothes on 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 247 

them, made of fine cloth, while they had only old 
ones which no one thought of having changed. 
The government was paying its court to the Em- 
peror of Russia, and our own prisoners returning 
from Siberia, in rags, stick in hand, passed these 
superb columns armed with French guns. 

Every officer, prisoner of war, was left on the 
muster-roll, for reference ; his turn of advancement 
passed, he was no longer thought of. The Em- 
peror only thought of the men present; it may be 
said of him that no sovereign ever treated the 
prisoners of the enemy better and those of his 
own army worse; he seemed to wish to punish 
them for having allowed themselves to be taken, 
as if a corps had ever been taken prisoner through 
the fault of the soldier or that of the ordinary 
officer. 

The regiments always did their duty; whenever 
they have been taken cither in whole or part. It 
is because they were not supported, or that a task 
beyond the possible had been demanded of them. 
The fault was always, either of circumstances, or 
of the commander-in-chief, whoever he may have 
been, emperor, marshal or general. As these gen- 



248 AN OFFICER OF 

tlemen take to themselves alone all the glory of a 
campaign, it Is but just that they should be held re- 
sponsible for the blunders they make from time to 
time: suum cuique. Besides, their share Is large 
enough, since the bravery of the soldier and of 
the officer, when crowned by success, redounds to 
the credit of the general-in-chlef whose fame it 
Increases. Our soldiers are brave beyond expres- 
sion ; whenever one hundred ready men were called 
for, a thousand came forth from the ranks. The 
great trouble of the officers was to hold them back, 
they always went too fast. I shall say no more, 
Europe has seen them. All that may be written 
will neither increase nor diminish their fame. The 
story of so many great deeds, sculptured in stone, 
cast in bronze, will last longer than the Colonne 
Vendome and the Arc de Triomphe: monumentum 
cere perennius. 

Frederick II knew our army well ; when Prince 
Ferdinand of Brunswick took the place of the 
Duke of Cumberland after the battle of Hastem- 
beck, won by Marechal d'Estrees in 1757, he said 
to him : " Cousin, you are going to fight the French ; 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 249 

you will find it easy to defeat their generals, but 
the soldiers, never." 

While our compatriot prisoners endured in the 
roads of Cadiz, in the island of Cabrera, all pos- 
sible physical and moral suffering ; while those who 
were going through the villages on their way to 
those horrible destinations were being pelted with 
mud and all sorts of ignominies, the Spaniards 
whom the fortune of war had caused to fall into 
our hands were as well treated in France as were 
the French soldiers; in certain localities they were 
treated even better. Sometimes it happened that 
individuals of the two armies rendered one another 
assistance in adversity; for after all soldiers when 
fighting kill each other without hatred. During 
an armistice, we often visited the enemy's canton- 
ments, and although ready to kill one another at 
the slightest signal, we were not the less disposed 
to render each other services if the occasion pre- 
sented itself. 

After the campaign of Austria, In 1809, the 
French army occupied the principality of Bayreuth; 
the Austrian army was cantoned on the frontiers 



250 AN OFFICER OF 

of Bohemia. War was not yet declared, but every- 
one knew that we were only waiting for the return 
of Spring. We used to visit the Austrian officers 
in the neighbourhood of Egra ; these gentlemen 
returned our calls; we dined together, champagne 
was not spared, everything went along pleasantly. 
At the time when the army started on the march, 
we met; we all took an oath over the bluish flame 
of a bowl of punch to render each other all pos- 
sible services, if anyone of us should become pris- 
oners of war. Each wrote down in his note book 
the name and address of all the friend-enemies, and 
we separated. Two weeks after, the battle of 
Ratisbon was fought; on both sides prisoners were 
made among the members of the association; they 
were well recommended in the cities of Austria 
and of France which they were to cross, in those 
where they were to dwell, assistance in money was 
supplied them, each forked out to fulfil that debt 
of honour, and individuals thus softened the ills 
caused by governments. 

Military laws are very severe, they have to be; 
otherwise how could a general make himself obeyed 
by a hundred thousand men who all, Individually, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 251 

are as strong as he? A misdemeanour which in 
private life is punishable by a few days' imprison- 
ment, brings the penalty of death with the soldier. 
The slightest assault towards a superior, the theft 
of the smallest article in the enemy's country, is 
the cause of a man's death. This last case being 
punished only by jfits and starts, during two or 
three weeks the soldiers were allowed to maraud 
at pleasure, because there were no supplies to dis- 
tribute to them. If a van of bread or of biscuit 
arrived, Immediately an order of the day forbade 
any sort of plunder; the first poor devil caught in 
the act suffered for everybody. I have seen some 
of these petty thieves shot for a shirt, a pair of 
boots, stolen from a peasant; but never was the 
great thief in large financial combinations pun- 
ished with the slightest penalty. Sometimes the 
Emperor made them disgorge, but they were 
never shot. 

Military executions were for the small fry. 
Laws resemble spiders' webs : the gnats are caught 
in them, the drones go through. On the eve of 
the battle of Wagram, twelve employes of the 
supplies department were caught in the act of sell- 



252 AN OFFICER OF 

ing the rations of the Imperial Guard; a few hours 
after they were shot. 

" I trust that this example will not be lost on 
you," I said to a certain supplies' man of my 
acquaintance; " the lesson is a good one, be care- 
ful." 

" Bah ! " he replied, " in the last battle, did you 
not see several of your friends die? " 

" Yes, what relation . . . !" 

" Will that prevent you from fighting to-mor- 
row?" 

"What a difference!" 

" I see none." 

*' So much the worse for you." 

These worthy employes of the supplies depart- 
ment were really the canons of the army. While 
the military section was fighting or bivouacked 
in the mud, these gentlemen stalked proudly 
through the neighbouring towns, courting the 
ladies, while storing away the flour supplied by 
the requisitions. Probably some of it remained 
in their hands, for in general they were loaded 
down with gold with which they knew not what 
to do. You know the proverb about the embar- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 253 

rassment of riches; I have often recognised Its 
truth In some of these gentlemen. To send their 
money to France by the post, was only possible 
In small quantities. Had the sum been too large, 
people would have made conjectures; the minister 
of war, in reckoning that with a pay of 100 louis 
one can not save 10,000 francs a year, would have 
cashiered the thief. They dared not leave the 
hoard In their lodgings, because, after all, doors 
may be opened or forced; to carry it always on 
one is troublesome and inconvenient. Poor unfor- 
tunates I they all resorted to the last course. I 
have seen some whose belts were of enormous 
weight, whose clothes were a cuirass of gold placed 
between the cloth and the lining. 

Differing in that respect from the Paris usurers, 
who make young men sign notes for double the 
sum they give them, the employes offered to the 
officers whose parents were rich a premium of 
from 30 to 40 per cent, on a note; they did the 
banking business at reduced rates. Officers of my 
acquaintance have received 1,500 francs In gold 
for a letter of credit of 1,000 francs, payable in 
six months, in France. The essential for mes- 



254 AN OFFICER OF 

sieurs the employes was to conceal their fortune; 
this premium had for them no real importance, 
in three days they had recovered more than the 
amount. 

One day, it was at Kloster-Neuburg, an illus- 
trious and celebrated abbey four leagues from 
Vienna, the immense cellars of this convent had 
been taken to make distributions of wine to the 
army; an employe was delivering the casks at the 
rate of one quart to a man. A quartermaster 
tastes the wine, and finds it weak. 

" I say, mister store-keeper, you are giving us 
water ! " 

" How, water ! Don't you see that it is wine ? " 
" Wine mighty well baptised. We could have 
taken charge of that operation; you should not 
have spared us the trouble." 

" The quartermasters are never satisfied." 
" Just because you always are. Just consider 
that we are camping on the banks of the Danube. 
I refuse the distribution. I do not wish my men 
to break their backs carrying water in the neigh- 
bourhood of a river." 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 255 

" Well, taste It all of you, and you will see 
who is right; the quartermaster or I." 

A cask is battered in, a canteen Is dipped in 
the Inside, what do they find? ... a live 
fish which was in as good health as Its colleagues 
In the Danube. Then there was a general shout 
against the employe; the soldiers rushed on him; 
the officer who presided at the distribution had 
great difficulty In getting him out of their hands. 

A regiment is on the march, the men talk, laugh 
boisterously, sing some lively song, there is a run- 
ning fire of jests. An aide-de-camp appears, he 
speaks to the colonel who gives the order to halt 
and load weapons. Soon we resume our march, 
the jests have ceased, no one says anything; each 
does his own thinking as to what Is about to hap- 
pen: that Is the man alone with himself. The 
enemy present themselves, everybody shouts " for- 
ward"; everyone wishes to advance on the run: 
that is man. You want to do that? so do I; you 
want to run? well! I shall beat you, but if you 
wanted to remain seated, I should ask no better 
than to lie down. 



256 AN OFFICER OF 

I was saying that gnats are caught In spiders* 
webs. At the time of the retreat from Portugal, 

General D had a poor devil shot for having 

eaten a bunch of grapes ! " Horrible I " some 
will say; " It Is Impossible! " others will repeat; 
to that I reply: It Is true; I'll say more, It was 
just. Dysentery was making ravages In the army, 
the soldiers died by the dozen. It was forbidden, 
under pain of death, to eat grapes, this fruit being 
the sole cause of that Illness. The first soldier 
caught In the act suffered for the others. The 
council of war assembled on the road; a quarter 
of an hour after, the poor devil was no more. 

"What happened? no more grapes were eaten, 
and health returned to all; through the death of 
one man, several thousands were saved; the gen- 
eral-In-chief was right. The Romans said on 
great occasions: Caveant consules. Whether 

D had the right to give that order, or not, 

no matter; that atrocious severity was approved 
by all, for It perhaps saved one-half of the army. 
If some fine gentlemen with long phrases had been 
there, the subject was certainly broad enough to 
display their eloquence; they would have obtained 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 257 

the pardon of the poor devil, they would have 
killed the body in sparing the member. The 
death of the grape-eater was a necessity for us 
all; it was imperative that everyone should see 
that the order of the day was not a vain threat; 
as soon as they were persuaded, the effect ceased 
by the stoppage of the cause. 

Had the same promptness been shown in hav- 
ing the big thieves executed, the war in Spain would 
not have lasted so long. How many gold and 
silver statues of saints, how many sacred vases 
and chalices were transformed into bullion, and 
later exchanged for residences in Paris ! How 
many diamonds and rubies, after having orna- 
mented for centuries the pompous and poetical 
ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church have 
been astounded and shocked to find themselves 
about the neck of an Opera dancer! 

The magnificent paintings which decorated the 
churches of Spain have almost all taken their way 
to France; they to-day grace the galleries of the 
lucky of our capital. In my time these were 
hardly any more to be seen, we were shown the 
empty spaces covered by filthy black serge; there 



258 AN OFFICER OF 

were left only some coarse paintings, done by the 
daubers of the Inquisition. 

Had a few of our amateurs of fine arts who 
so carefully protected them in their vans by a 
strong escort, been ordered shot, the war would 
not have become national; but many would have 
been obliged to order themselves shot. 

But that of which I have always disapproved, 
the thing which was always an affliction for me, 
was the severity exercised in punishing plunder 
one day, after having tacitly authorised it during 
a month. As soon as the order had been issued, 
woe to the man who did not conform to it, the 
next day he was no more. We arrive at Weimar, 
some soldiers go out and maraud in the neigh- 
bouring villages, a peasant is killed; suddenly the 
marauders are surrounded, two hundred are 
arrested and imprisoned in a church. General 

L immediately appoints a council of war to 

judge the assassin who is to be shot the next morn- 
ing before the departure of the division. 

One of my friends, appointed reporter of the 
council, goes to the church followed by all the 
peasants ; none recognise the guilty one, who prob- 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 259 

ably had not let himself be caught. His mission 
ended there, since no one was accused. Our re- 
porter hastens to the general, he explains the case. 

" No matter, Monsieur," said M. L , " do 

as best you can, the crime must be punished." 

" Certainly, but on whom? " 

" That concerns you." 

" The peasants all agree that the assassin wore 
red epaulets, he is therefore a grenadier; we have 
forty in prison, I have had them placed separately, 
but none has been recognised as the assassin." 

" Put the name of all these grenadiers in a bag, 
make them draw lots, the one whose name comes 
out first will be shot to-morrow." 

" General, I do not wish to have charge of such 
a performance." 

" I order you to do so." 

" I refuse." 

" Give me back your sword." 

" Here It is." 

" Take the captain to prison! " 

General L— was at dinner; he rises, furious, 

calls the corporal of the guard, and orders the 
arrest of the captain-reporter. But the next day, 



26o AN OFFICER OF 

being more sober, the general returned the sword, 
and no one was shot. 

In the Bautzen campaign, a footsoldler of my 
regiment was militarily executed for having stolen 
a woman's black apron with which to make a neck- 
tie. 

A military execution Is a terrible sight. I have 
never seen a civil execution, I know the guillotine 
through the prints; but very often my duty has 
placed me face to face with an unfortunate about 
to be shot. I do not know what the state of his 
pulse may have been, but it certainly beat no faster 
than mine. 

The troops form a square that has but three 
sides; the fourth is empty, it has to serve as a 
passage for the bullets. Grand military pomp is 
expressly displayed, and It Is but right, for since 
a terrible example is being made, It must at least 
be rendered useful to those who remain. The 
condemned man appears accompanied by a priest; 
suddenly the drums beat a salute until the culprit 
has reached the centre of the troops. Then comes 
a roll of the drums. The captain-reporter reads 
the sentence, the drums roll once more, the man 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 261 

is made to kneel, he is blindfolded and a dozen 
corporals commanded by an adjutant sub-lieuten- 
ant fire on the unfortunate who is at ten paces in 
front of them. 

To decrease, if possible, the agony of the con- 
demned man, the commands are not spoken, the 
adjutant gives them with his cane which acts as 
a signal. In case the man should not be dead 
after the volley, which sometimes happens, a 
reserve platoon is ready to finish him, by firing 
at close quarters. 

It is with an oppressed heart that I describe 
these horrors; sad memories come to haunt me; 
the poor unfortunates whom I have seen on their 
knees at that fatal moment all appear to me as 
phantoms; and yet at all these executions, when- 
ever they took place near a city, some beautiful 
ladies of the locality never failed to be present. 
With their sensitive nerves they solicited a good 
place from which they could see everything, and 
then the next day they fainted if someone killed 
a chicken in their presence. 

When the judgment has been carried out, all 
the troops file past before the body; each returns 



262 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

to his barrack-room, it is the topic of conversation 
for three days, and soon it is forgotten. 

I have seen several of these unfortunates die 
with admirable composure. 

I have seen some who addressed the regiment, 
commanded the fire, not a single syllable denoting 
in them the slightest emotion. But the man who, 
in such a circumstance, showed the most astonish- 
ing courage was General Malet.^^ Conducted to 
the plain of Crenelle with thirteen of his accom- 
plices, he asked, as chief of the conspirators, for 
permission to give the command to fire. 

"Shoulder . . . arms!" he exclaimed in 
a thundering voice. " That's no good, we'll begin 
all over. Stand at ease, everybody! Shoulder 
. . . arms ! Good, well done. Platoon . . . 
ready ! Aim ! Fire I " . . . All fell, ex- 
cept Malet who alone remained standing. 

" How about me, sacre nom de D , you have 

forgotten me, my friends ! The reserve platoon, 
forward! Good. Shoulder . . . arms! 
Ready . , . Aim . . . Fire ! " . . • 



RETIREMENT 



CHAPTER XV 

RETIREMENT 

" Did you never have the desire of becoming 
a soldier? " said I one day to Abbe Barberi, who 
was the first to initiate me into the mysteries of 
the declension and the conjugation, in the glad- 
some science of the participle, and the merry com- 
binations of the gerund and of the supine. 

" Oh ! certainly, I've had it, and although old, 
I would still have it, could I choose my occupa- 
tion." 

" And which would you prefer? " 

" Frankly speaking, I have always desired the 
rank of general of division, retired." 

During the thirty years that an officer spends 
in the service, he daily thinks of the time when, 
retired, he will be able, free from all duty, to act 
according to his fancy, plant his cabbage or have 
them planted. When the time comes, when he 
is settled in his little town, he is usually lonesome. 

265 



266 AN OFFICER OF 

His life used to be daily cut up by events, episodes ; 
it is now going to pass with frightful monotony. 

Fortunate is he if he has selected a garrison 
town as a place of residence. 

In that case, the parade hour, the arrival of a 
regiment, a grand manoeuvre are for him pieces 
of good luck which he never misses. 

The retired officer Is easy to recognise. First 
his face does not resemble that of the notary or 
of the doctor; it is sun-burnt, severe; his features 
are very prominent; his speech is brief and accen- 
tuated. If the officer returned to private life still 
gives orders, his tone Is without rejoinder; he car- 
ries out the orders; he sees that they are carried 
out, because he must obey and be obeyed; It Is 
one of the conditions of his existence. He is good, 
but his children tremble in his presence : if he speaks 
they must be silent He is old, but his figure Is 
straight; he walks with a strut; If he Is lame, If 
he has but one leg, If the one he lacks is replaced 
by a piece of wood, never mind, you will still 
hear the symmetrical and cadenced sound of the 
military step. 

The retired officer, In his civilian clothes, always 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 267 

retains something which savours of the regiment. 

His black cravat allows a white piping to be 
seen; his waistcoat has numbered buttons, he often 
wears uniform trousers, and at home he Is always 
to be found wearing a foraglng-cap ; his dressing- 
gown Is an old dress-coat cut short six Inches. 

If he takes his wife to see the manoeuvre, for a 
retired officer Is essentially married, his attention 
Is absorbed by the commands ; he sees the mistakes 
and points them out to his neighbours. If a 
change of front Is about to occur, he does not fall 
to say: 

" Let us get away from here, my dear, they are 
going to come this way." 

Make an appointment with a retired officer, he 
will always be there first; military punctuality Is 
never forgotten. He will not say: " I'll call on 
you In the afternoonj" but " after the parade." 
The words parade, drill, manoeuvre, are Incrusted 
in his brain. In his estimation, his regiment was 
the foremost in the army. Start him on that sub- 
ject and you'll hear some fine things. That 
brotherhood which brings together two thousand 
men around the same flag, proceeds from the 



268 AN OFFICER OF 

noblest sentiments; there is in it, perhaps, a slight 
dose of conceit; besides, without conceit what 
would one do? 

The officer often counts his years of service, his 
campaigns, his wounds; he knows by heart the 
law relating to retirements and the list which goes 
with them. He always calculates at what time 
will come the new rank so long awaited, a rank 
which must of necessity increase the rate with 
regard to him. 

" When I get my retirement, I shall go to Brit- 
tany; one can live cheaply there, and game is 
plentiful," said one. 

" I shall go to Burgundy, people drink good 
wine there," said another. 

" And I," said a third, " to Provence, the 
weather is always fine, in spite of the mistral, or 
perhaps because of the mistral." 

Cannon balls often disturbed all these fine 
projects, which did not hinder the remaining 
officers from building new castles in Spain, the 
very next day. 

In the career of glory one gets many things : 
the gout and ribbons, a pension and rheumatism. 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 269 

Oh ! my leg, the weather Is going to change. Oh, 
dear! my arm, the barometer Is going down. And 
then frozen feet, the loss of a member, a bullet 
which has lodged between two bones and which 
the surgeon has not been able to extract. What 
do I say, one, two, ten bullets; I have known brave 
soldiers whose skins looked like a skimmer and 
who carried In their body lead in quantity sufficient 
to go to the hunt on the opening day. How 
many chances there are In this world ! . . . 
some were wounded every time they went on 
the firing line, others always returned safe and 
sound. 

All those bivouacs In rain and snow, all those 
privations, all those fatigues experienced In youth, 
you suffer for them on becoming old, when you 
have retired. 

Because one has suffered In the past, one must 
suffer more, a condition seemingly not very just. 
The pay is less high, but as a compensation the 
needs are doubled. 

Sometimes the retired officer utilises his leisure 
by honourable employment; others withdraw to 
the country, they take care of their garden and 



270 AN OFFICER OF 

hunt as much as they can; they are right, I am 
not the one to find fault with them. 

I have known some who would have accepted 
employment from no one and at no price. After 
an obedience of thirty years, they delight in that 
sweet thought that they are their own masters; 
that to go, come, eat, sleep, they no longer have 
to ask permission and that they are free to act In 
all respects according to their own will. 

A captain of cavalry, about to retire, made a 
singular proposition to the oldest trumpeter of 
his regiment. 

" My friend," said he to him, " I am going to 
retire to the country; I own a small house, a few 
acres of land and my pension ; with all these things 
I expect to live at my ease. If you wish to come 
with me, we shall plant cabbage and eat them 
together." 

" Do I wish to ! I should say I did ! " 

" Well ! I'm going to secure your discharge, but 
I have one condition to make." 

"Which?" 

" You will perform in the country, at my home, 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 271 

the same service as in the regiment. You will 
sound the reveille and the various bugle calls." 
" Captain, I'll sound anything you wish." 
Our two men depart, arrive and instal them- 
selves in a modest house where the captain was 
delighted to be his own master and to be able to 
dispose of his time according to his fancy. At 
certain hours, the trumpeter, after having sounded 
his martial instrument, came all out of breath to 
the officer's chamber. 
"Well! what is it?" 

" Captain, the regiment is mounting horse." 
" The regiment is quite right, were I in its place, 
I should do the same thing, in my place, it would 
do as I do, what do I care for the regiment." 

The good captain did not exactly say: "What 
do I care " ; he made use of a more emphatic ex- 
pression, but I dare not repeat it here. Those 
worthy cavalry officers . . . they always 
swear. We footsoldiers are infinitely more re- 
served. The captain arose late, sometimes he 
did not rise at all. He smoked his pipe, watched 
his cabbages growing, and laughed in his sleeve 



272 AN OFFICER OF 

on hearing the trumpeter periodically sound his 
harmonious solos. 

" Well! what is it now? " 

" Captain, there are grand manoeuvres to-day." 

"What do I care!" 

" The weather is beautiful . . ." 

" So much the better, my friend, but what do 
I care!" 

" Parade." 

"Good!" 

*' Grooming! " 

"Excellent!" 

" Inspection ! " 

" Better and better." 

" Drill on foot." 

"What else?" 

" Mounted drill." 

" I expected that." 

" And then to-morrow a review by the marshal." 

" Bravo ! I was sure of it." And he broke 
forth into loud laughter. 

" Well, what do I care ! ... I am going 
to bed." 

As for me, dear reader, to thank you for the 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 273 

patience you have had in following me through 
all my prattling, I shall whisper to you that I 
resemble that worthy captain a little. I have no 
trumpeter subject to my orders, at which I am 
very often angry; but as a fortunate compensation, 
the cabbages I plant grow at Chenevieres-sur- 
Marne. From the heights of this village, I have 
the satisfaction of hearing the drums, the trumpets 
and even the cannon of Vincennes. " Come, cour- 
age! my friends," I sometimes say to them, " beat, 
blow, fire, thunder, what do I care! " and I go to 
bed. 



NOTES 

1 The Velites were light infantry volunteers. Two corps 
of velites composed of 800 men had been organised by a 
decree of the Year XII. They were in turn garrisoned at 
Saint-Germain, Ecouen and Fontainebleau. These corps con- 
stituted a sort of regimental schools. The greater number 
of velites, as soon as their education was completed, were 
appointed sub-lieutenants and assigned to regiments. 

2 After the Battle of Eylau (7-8 February, 1807), the losses 
of the army and the weakening of the soldiers compelled 
Napoleon, in spite of victory, not to pursue the Russians. 
Besides, after a plentiful fall of snow, a thaw had begun. 
Napoleon then drew back on the Passarge, and placed his 
troops in cantonments to cover the siege of Dantzig and 
the march of Jerome on Silesia. The Third Army Corps 
to the right and the First to the left encircle the Fourth, 
the Sixth is in the East around Giittstadt, the Guard is in 
the rear around Osterode, the Fifth corps at Warsaw ; and 
it was towards Thorn that the line of operation was main- 
tained. 

2 The camp of Finkenstein, was established at the end of 
February, 1807. The Guard, after having marched from 
Thorn on Marienbourg and Osterode and cantoned in the 
snow, established itself before Finkenstein. For the Em- 
peror who, a few days before had, in the midst of his 
Guard, only a barn for shelter, a palace of brick was erected. 

* It was the month of December, 1808, that the retreat of 
General John Moore on Corunna took place. This retreat 

275 



276 AN OFFICER OF 

cost England 10,000 men and General Moore who was mor- 
tally wounded. 

s This determination on the part of the Emperor was a 
corollary of the decree of Berlin. As we could receive 
indigo only from England, by using white cloth for the 
army, Napoleon deprived English commerce of a branch of 
its industry. 

6 The Imperial Guard was generally detested by the other 
corps, furious at its egoism and its haughty pretensions. 
The private in the Guard, following the example of his 
officers, considered himself much above his superiors in the 
line. 

" The entire army feared the contact of this corps spoiled 
by the favours, the extreme indulgence and the partiality 
of its monarch commander-in-chief." (General Hulot.) 

''' Friant's Division, to which belonged the 108th, Blaze's 
Regiment, was one of those assigned to meet Marie-Louise 
of Austria at the frontiers of the Empire. 

It was on March 16, 1810, at Braunau, that the future 
Empress was delivered into the hands of Marshal Berthier, 
Prince of Neufchatel, representing the Emperor. Having 
left Vienna on the 13th, Marie-Louise had crossed Austria 
amidst the ringing of the bells of all the villages and the 
enthusiasm of the peasantry cheering her passage. She 
reached Althein, on the Bavarian frontier on the i6th. 

Between Braunau and Althein three pavilions, one Aus- 
trian, the other neutral, the last French, had been erected, 
for pleasure had been taken in reviving the protocolary 
forms which, forty years before had marked the marriage 
of Marie- Antoinette. It was at half past one, in the neutral 
pavilion, that Prince Trautmannsdorf exchanged with the 
Prince of Neufchatel the documents certifying to the de- 
livery, then Marie-Louise came to embrace Caroline Bona- 
parte who was awaiting her in the French pavilion. Re- 
joicings brought together at Braunau the members of the 
two missions, French and Austrian, but the very next day 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 277 

Marie-Louise had to bid good-bye to the ladies who had ac- 
companied her. 

8 Tour-d'Auvergne (Theophile-Malo Corret de la), born 
at Carhaix (Finistere), Nov. 23, 1743, killed at Oberhausen 
(Bavaria), June 27, 1800. He was descended from a bastard 
branch of the House of Bouillon. A captain at the time 
of the Revolution, he refused all advancement, went to 
serve (1792) in the Army of the Alps, then (1793) in the 
Army of the Pyrenees-Orientales where placed at the head 
of all the companies of grenadiers of the army, he dis- 
tinguished himself by a thousand deeds of bravery and dar- 
ing. His disinterestedness equalled his fearlessness. Taken 
prisoner by the English (1795) and exchanged in 1797, he 
re-entered the army as substitute for the son of his friend 
Le Brigant, and went through the campaign of Zurich (1799). 
Appointed premier grenadier de la republique by Bonaparte 
(1800), he declined that distinction, went to rejoin Moreau's 
army in Germany and perished six days after his arrival at 
the camp. 

9 The complete laxness of discipline had slowly brought 
about the invasion of the camps by a crowd of women. 
Mistresses of Marshals of the Empire and of the generals, 
actresses, danseuses, Spanish women by the thousand, young 
girls, formed a love escort following the army in barouches, 
in cabriolets, on mules, on asses, and on foot according to 
the fortune of their protectors or circumstances. 

1° One is surprised to-day to find in all the soldiers who 
occupied Germany from 1806 to 1809 the same sympathy for 
the inhabitants. That is easily explained; the populations 
at that time gave the French troops the kindest of recep- 
tion and, far from fleeing at their approach, they offered 
them the most liberal hospitality. The Poles, on the con- 
trary, as soon as the coming of a detachment was announced, 
deserted the villages and devoted their whole energy in con- 
cealing their provisions. But practise in marauding enabled 
the troopers sounding the ground with their ram-rods to 



278 AN OFFICER OF 

find, even in the depths of the woods the Poles' best hiding- 
places. 

It was only later and as the continued presence of the 
French troops became too burdensome to the Germans, and 
their patience and good nature disappeared. 

11 " In the environs of Pultusk, the roads have disappeared 
beneath the waters and mud, one sees only wrecked car- 
riages and horses buried to the belly; the six-horse coaches 
of the Emperor, in spite of all precautions, upset in frightful 
bogs, and it is necessary to lead a horse to one of the coach 
doors to enable the Emperor to extricate himself from this 
dangerous predicament." (Coignet.) 

As to the army, it was never so wretched ; " the soldier, 
always on the march, bivouacking every night, spending en- 
tire days in mud up to the knees," without bread, without 
brandy, falls with fatigue and exhaustion. Many die in the 
ditches. Those who still march are frightful to behold, 
" the fire and smoke of the bivouacs have rendered them 
yellow, wan, unrecognisable, their eyes are inflamed, their 
clothes covered with filth and smoky . . . they are gloomy 
and dreamy or mumbling curses and insults." (Baron 
Percy.) 

12 It was an aide-de-camp to General Rottembourg that 
Blaze left for Spain. 

13 When a soldier had proved himself a coward, or else 
committed a grave offence against his comrades, the latter 
condemned him to receive fifty blows of a savate (old shoe). 
The judges themselves carrying out the sentence. 

1* Coup de manchette was the name given to the blow of a 
sword that struck the wrist; the duel code expressly forbade 
this blow. 

IS General Dorsenne, " handsome Dorsenne," as he was 
nicknamed as a just homage, rendered both to his care in 
dress and his physical advantages, had been made a colonel 
of grenadiers of the Guard on his return from Egypt, from 
where he had come back covered with wounds, He was a 



NAPOLEON'S ARMY 279 

superb soldier in whom one could forgive this eccentricity 
of being as scrupulously thoughtful of his attire on the day 
of a battle as on the night of a reception at the Tuileries, 
so much did he exhibit in turn of fearlessness in action and 
stoical courage. There are words of his that are of heroic 
simplicity; at EssHng, after having had two horses killed 
under him, a shell in exploding covered him with earth and 
threw him down, he arose and, dusting his clothes with fillips 
he uttered but one word : " Bunglers ! " 

16 It was on the 27th of June, 1807, that the Guard ma- 
noeuvred before the two Emperors; the King of Prussia, who, 
the evening before, had been present at the interview of the 
Emperors, was ill and excused himself. The days which fol- 
low were taken up by fraternal banquets between the sol- 
diers and officers of the two armies, reviews, visits to the 
camps. Blaze refers to one of these visits. 

1'^ Here is this curious document : 

" The governor of the town caused a parley to be sounded 
and a white flag to be planted on one of the angles of the 
bastion. An officer immediately came forward and asked 
what was wanted. The answer came that they wanted to 
capitulate, then hostages were proposed, and the exchange 
took place. The town gave two officers, the besiegers sent 
them an equal number." 

Here are the terms of the capitulation: 

" We, the governor, having considered the state of our 
town, the advantage of the besiegers, having no hope of 
being assisted, have assembled a council of war, in which, 
after having considered our position, it has been decided to 
surrender the place on the following conditions, to wit: 

" I. That the citizens of the town will on no account 
be molested, that they will be free in the exercise of their 
religion, and that they will not be deprived of any of the 
privileges which they have always enjoyed, and which our 
Kings have always authorised; 

"2. That several privileged buildings, such as hospitals, 



aSo AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY 

churches, town-houses, which have been destroyed by the 
besiegers shall be rebuilt at their expense; 

"3, That the deserters shall not be sought; 

"4. That all prisoners taken by either side during the 
sorties shall be returned regardless of number; 

" 5. That the sick, no matter what the nature of their 
ailments may be, shall be cared for by the besiegers ; 

" 6. That four covered vans shall be granted to take away 
the furniture and other effects of the besieged without it 
being permitted to look in them; 

" 7. That four coaches shall be supplied for several ladies 
of quality who found themselves confined in our town during 
the investment, and who were not permitted to leave although 
we asked it; 

"8. That we shall come out accompanied by our garrison, 
with all the honours of war, that is, with beating drums, 
flags unfurled, with all our guns, eight pieces of cannon, 
eig^ht mortars, arms and baggage; 

" We promise on our word of honour that there shall be 
supplied to the commander of the detachment which is to 
escort us a safe-conduct duly signed to withdraw in all safety 
to the territory in the dominion of the victors. 

" Signed : Le Chevalier D'Allemant, Governor, 

and Charles de Bourbon, Comte d'Eu." 

18 Malet (Claude Frangois de), a French general, born at 
Dole in 1754. Having hatched against Napoleon I a plot 
which was almost successful, he was arrested, tried by a 
military commission and sentenced to death. The very day 
of his condemnation, October 29, 1812, he (and thirteen ac- 
complices) was taken to the plain of Crenelle and shot. 



NOV 21 1911 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



NOV • 



*'?'" 



I-ibraf^ 




